My cousin and I were talking about the oscars and how they kinda reflect how this year went (i.e. slumdog millionaire, everyone wanted a fairytale ending; hurt locker, people were consumed with the war and whatnot; and according to here everyone was depressed in 2004 and wanted some fantasy escape with Return of the King), anyways, we were saying that seeing 'the social network' as best picture would be suitable because of the facebook burst. However I'd still love Toy Story3 to win, even though I think it won't

I don't have much respect for the Academy Awards. I feel it's all show and glitz and glam but those who truly deserve awards seldom win. Ah well. Enough ranting.

Anyways, I stopped watching after the Lord of the Rings years, but there's one award I'm sorta following this year, and that's How to Train Your Dragon for best Score. It had better win.

Hasn't Wil poulter and Narnia been nominated for any awards in any awards show?

Here's my hopes for the Oscars this year:

Best Picture:

127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech I think this has a very high chance of winning
The Social Network ditto
Toy Story 3
True Grit This is my top pick to win
Winter's Bone And this my second fav.

Best Actor:
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King's Speech I'm really hoping for this, and I think he has a pretty good chance too
James Franco, 127 Hours

Best Actress:
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right she gets my vote
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone or Jennifer
Natalie Portman, Black Swan Natalie will prob win
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine or Michelle

Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter Eeek, I can't decide between her,
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit Or Hailee...
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Animated Picture:
How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3 While I haven't seen this and don't want to, I think it deserves to win.

Cinematography

* “Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
* “Inception” Wally Pfister This gets my vote!
* “The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
* “The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
* “True Grit” Roger Deakins

Costume Design

* “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood I'm going to go with this
* “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
* “The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan
* “The Tempest” Sandy Powell
* “True Grit” Mary Zophres

My choices -

Best Picture:
True Grit

Best Director:
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

Best Actor:
Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Best Actress:
Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Supporting Actor:
I actually didn't feel strongly about any of the nominees for this one.

Best Supporting Actress:
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Best Animated Picture:
How To Train Your Dragon

I really hope Natalie gets Best Actress, I've think she's had that Oscar coming since Leon.

My mixed choices of Black Swan and True Grit for the main awards remind me of No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood a few years ago - one is a vehicle for a career topping performance (Natalie Portman in Black Swan, and Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood), and the other succeeds as a wonderful piece of storytelling rather than having individual people stand out (No County For Old Men, True Grit).

This year's crop of BP nominees, for the most part, are much better than last year's. When the "race" first began I read an article from one of the many Oscar blogs. The site was saying that this year's movies were good, but paled in comparison to last year's- I totally disagree.

I enjoyed Avatar but aside of the beautiful visuals it wasn't spectacular enough for BP. The Hurt Locker which won, wasn't bad but it was THAT great to begin with either. Precious had good acting, Monique deserved the awards, but the movie fell apart a lot in the middle in my opinion. I love The Blind Side, one of the few I expect- but it didn't belong in BP either. Pixar's Up, I'm a fanboy for this company. The movie was very good, and it has grown more on me- but BP? Not in my opinion. And I can go on...

This year.
1 The Social Network was terrific, and I'd love for it to win- but not because of the whole facebook thing, the movie was much more than that- that so simply call it a win because of that would be a shame IMO. Andrew Garfield should have received a nomination.

2 Black Swan, Natalie Portman's best role yet. Terrific all around. I am surprised it didn't get more nominations however.

3 The King's Speech, A very good movie, though as many have said elsewhere- very formulaic. Deserved the nominations it has received, no doubt, but it doesn't deserve the win for BP.

4 Toy Story 3, I thought it was great when I saw it in theater. I LOVED it when I saw it on DVD at home. I'm happy it made the BP list, and to finally see an animated movie win would be nice- but it won't be this year.

5 127 Hours, A few months ago I would have said this would get nominated. A month ago I would have said it wouldn't be nominated. I am glad it was! If one movie overwhelmed me this year it was this one! James Franco delivered a terrific role, for which I hope to see him win. Fantastic all around. When the movie ended, I didn't know what to do with myself because I was so moved by what I had just seen.

6 The Fighter, Terrific movie. But not one of my personal favorites. Amy Adams shouldn't be nominated IMO, though she was good. Christian Bale I expect will win a very much deserved Oscar for this movie.

7 The Kids Are All Right. I wasn't going to see this originally, but I did catch it on DVD. Very good acting. But mediocre movie. Shouldn't be on the list IMO. Annette Bening won't be winning for this, There's just no way Portman can lose!

8 Inception, One of the few movies I saw twice in theaters this year. Terrific movie. Spectacular. But I'm not sure it will impress with repeated viewings, not meaning it won't be as good ten year's from now, but it doesn't have what a Best Picture Winning movie should have- which is why I don't expect it to win, and I'm not surprised Nolan wasn't nominated for Director.

9. Winter's Bone. Jennifer Lawrence delivered a terrific role. Deserves her nod. The guy nominated I'd have replaced with Andrew Garfield. The movie, though not bad, I didn't like it.

10. True Grit. It's the only BP nominee I haven't seen, and because I have postponed it several times already. I will be seeing it this Saturday however.

This is it for now, I will speak of the other nominated movies in another post, as well as editing this post later with my thoughts on True Grit, (to keep BP comments in one)

The only movies I've seen from the BP list are The King's Speech and Toy Story 3 (haven't gotten around to seeing Inception yet; don't shoot me! ). I am wholeheartedly behind The King's Speech winning any and every award it's up for; it truly was an amazing movie with some amazing performances. If Colin Firth doesn't win, heads will roll. He's probably the most locked in of all Oscar awards in a long time.

I was reading some articles about the whole award season thing the other day, and a lot of people are predicting that The King's Speech is going to win BP based on the demographic that votes for the Oscars. Whereas the people who voted for the Golden Globes tended to be younger (hence it skewing to The Social Network), Academy members tend to be older and reward the film and performances that appeal to them. The King's Speech won at the SAG's the other week, so that only makes it easier for them.

And what did the paragraph above mean? Nothing; just me rambling. I guess I'm just sort of excited since it's been...well, actually no movie I've ever seen has ever been a front runner for a bunch of Oscars (wasn't around for the whole LotR saga).

If Colin Firth doesn't win, heads will roll. He's probably the most locked in of all Oscar awards in a long time.

I was reading some articles about the whole award season thing the other day, and a lot of people are predicting that The King's Speech is going to win BP based on the demographic that votes for the Oscars. The King's Speech won at the SAG's the other week, so that only makes it easier for them.

Firth was great, but I prefer Franco. But you are right, Firth has this almost locked in for a win. I also agree with the article about TKS's chances of winning, but it's not locked to win so we'll have to see. Also, The King's Speech hasn't won the SAG yet, those air on Sunday- (unless you know something the rest of us don't )

I'm also very disappointed that Andrew Garfield wasn't nominated for either The Social Network or Never Let Me Go

yeah, I'm REALLY surprised Never Let Me Go was completely left out of anything! What's up with that? It was very well received, all star cast, beautiful score, cinematography and acting. I'd been expecting it to get nominated for a whole bunch of stuff...Carey Mulligan so deserved a nod for her role as Cathy.

I'm also very disappointed that Andrew Garfield wasn't nominated for either The Social Network or Never Let Me Go

yeah, I'm REALLY surprised Never Let Me Go was completely left out of anything! What's up with that? It was very well received, all star cast, beautiful score, cinematography and acting. I'd been expecting it to get nominated for a whole bunch of stuff...Carey Mulligan so deserved a nod for her role as Cathy.

Actually, that quote was from Bkey, I didn't write that. But that doesn't make it less true, I also mentioned that Andrew Garfield should have been nominated for The Social Network. As for Never Let Me Go, it was a great movie- he did a very good job there too alongside Carey Mulligan but that movie basically went under the radar, it really wasn't very well received (thought not bad either), so the studio seemed to have dropped its campaign for it. Sadly.

If Colin Firth doesn't win, heads will roll. He's probably the most locked in of all Oscar awards in a long time.

I was reading some articles about the whole award season thing the other day, and a lot of people are predicting that The King's Speech is going to win BP based on the demographic that votes for the Oscars. The King's Speech won at the SAG's the other week, so that only makes it easier for them.

Firth was great, but I prefer Franco. But you are right, Firth has this almost locked in for a win. I also agree with the article about TKS's chances of winning, but it's not locked to win so we'll have to see. Also, The King's Speech hasn't won the SAG yet, those air on Sunday- (unless you know something the rest of us don't )

Ok, maybe it wasn't a SAG; but it won something that was apparently very telling as far as how the Oscars might go. Forgive me for getting my awards mixed!

I was disappointed that Tangled didn't get a best animated nomination. However, one of the songs "I See the Light" did get nominated for a song award.
I was also disappointed that Despicable Me didn't get on the animated list either. It was so cute!
But I agree about Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon.
I think it would be the most epic thing ever if TS3 won, but it probably won't happen.

Ok, maybe it wasn't a SAG; but it won something that was apparently very telling as far as how the Oscars might go. Forgive me for getting my awards mixed!

oh, that's right! I forgot about that. For a list of nominations/awards that nominees have received:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/

Red Box on the right side. non-nominees were removed, even if they had received nods/awards.

My Predictions:

Best Picture: The Social Network. TSN and The King's Speech are basically neck and neck. TSN sweeped the critics circles awards, which made it the early frontrunner, but The King's Speech recently won the Producer's Guild Award, which is very telling. However, not every film to win the PGA has gone on to win the Oscar. (Little Miss Sunshine, Brokeback Mountain, and Saving Private Ryan are a few examples that won the PGA but not the Oscar.) This race is close, but I think that The Social Network will ultimately prevail. It's a technically flawless film, and its timely and relevant to America's current fast paced, tech based society.

Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network. No question here, his direction of TSN was perfect. Fincher has long been one of my favorite directors, and The Social Network is one of his best. If he doesn't come away with the Oscar I will be stunned. I also think that Christopher Nolan should have been nominated for Inception over the Coen Brothers. I was surprised Nolan got snubbed.

Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech. Firth is pitch perfect in this role. He's long had this win locked up, and he's overdue. His performance in 2009's A Single Man, for which he was also nominated was very overlooked and underrated as well. I think James Franco was excellent in 127 Hours as well, and if Firth wasn't nominated the award would be his for the taking. I'm a little miffed that Ryan Gosling wasn't nominated for Blue Valentine, which was a brave, raw, and emotional performance in a very powerful film.

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan. Once again, this award belongs to Natalie. She is perfect in Black Swan, and really carries the dark film. The fact that she had never danced in her life before getting the role also speaks volumes about her dedication to the role and to acting. She's so captivating and you really go through her decent with her. As for the other nominees, Annette Bening was very good in The Kids Are All Right, however, I liked Julianne Moore's character better, and feel like she almost deserves a nom just as much as Annette. I'm also very excited that Michelle Williams and Jennifer Lawrence were both nominated. They both delivered two of the best performances of the year in Blue Valentine and Winter's Bone respectively.

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter. Christian Bale's physically transformative role as Dicky Eklund was one of the best performances of the year, and may go down as being the defining role of Bale's career. He's almost unrecognizable in the film, and honestly is overdue for a nomination. This is his award to lose. I'm extremely disappointed that Andrew Garfield was snubbed. He should have been nominated for either The Social Network or Never Let Me Go. Very disappointing, but he has a long and successful career ahead of him, so I'm sure he'll get his due eventually. Also, really glad to see John Hawkes get a nom. He was haunting in Winter's Bone.

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter. Honestly, I think this could go to either Leo or to her co-star Amy Adams, both of which did a great job in The Fighter. I think Leo will ultimately come out on top. Glad to see Hailee Steinfeld get nominated for True Grit. Anyone who can hold their own against the likes of Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin has my respect. Also glad that Jacki Weaver got nominated. She does an excellent job in Animal Kingdom, a very under appreciated, yet gripping film that unfortunately most people in America have never seen nor ever will see.

In other categories, Toy Story 3 will walk away with Best Animated Film, although How To Train Your Dragon is a worthy adversary. Aaron Sorkin will win Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network, and I hope Black Swan wins Best Cinematography, although I could see this going to True Grit, The King's Speech, or Inception as well. Also hope How To Train Your Dragon wins Best Score. It was one of the best of the year in my opinion.