Oscar Nominations Announced

I suppose I did relatively well on my predictions.  I went 39 for 45 (or 87%) on the 8 major categories and overall 86 for 120 (or 72%).  I did after all, make predictions in even the dangerous categories of short films - doing the worst in Live Action Short (only 1 out of 5 right).  My percentage is down slightly from last year, where it was at 89% (I only predicted the 6 Majors last year, leaving out the screenplay categories as well as all the tech stuff).

As far as what I did right or wrong, here are my "highlights".  My last minute switch from 127 Hours to The Town in BP and Mila Kunis for Jacki Weaver in Supporting Actress did not pay off very well, but my adding on of Michelle Williams for Best Actress did.  I got perfect scores in Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay.  I got one wrong in Best Supporting Actor, but the fact that John Hawkes got nominated, makes it just all right with me - though I would have expected Jeremy Renner to be the one knocked out instead of Andrew Garfield.

Anyway, surprises were not that prevalent (surprise, surprise).  There were a few though.  Along with the aforementioned John Hawkes and Michelle Williams nods (though I did correctly predict Ms. Williams' nod), they include (yet another) snub for Chris Nolan, to be replaced by the Coens (I personally found Inception and True Grit to be about comparable films in my liking, so it is a push as far as I am concerned), a well-deserved nod for Dogtooth in the Foreign category (which I predicted btw) and the snubbing of Waiting For Superman, which I not only thought would get nominated, but was the frontrunner to win Best Doc.  All that and only 4 nominees for Best Song, leaving Cher out in the cold (isn't that what the Oscars song category is all about!?  Obnoxious music?).  But my favourite surprise still is the great John Hawkes finally getting some recognition for his acting.  Way to go Teardrop (perhaps the Academy was afraid he would come after them if he wasn't nominated).

Anyway, I'll leave the Oscars alone for now and get back to watching and reviewing movies (old and new alike), as well as planning the Second Annual Midtown Cinema Oscar Party, and will return with my Oscar predictions the day before the big show (which is February 27th btw).  

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot - congrats Michelle (if you need anyone to celebrate with, you can e-mail me courtesy of this blog).