Official Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards

Well the Oscars are almost upon us, and fittingly, the official nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards have been released. Check them out below, and be sure to stick around to give us your thoughts on these (historic?) Academy picks.

In the Best Picture category, I was very pleased to see District 9, Up and Inglourious Basterds all getting nods. Although, so did The Blind Side and Avatar, so we'll see what comes of the new "ten nominations" system. Personally, I am pulling heavily for Basterds, The Hurt Locker or Up in the Air.

Directing-wise, again no real surprises, entirely pulled from the Best Picture category, not that that's a bad thing. I think it would be really nice to see Tarantino finally getting the win, but an Oscar for Bigelow or Reitman could give their careers a serious push in the right direction. What's most surprising is the fact that Eastwood, whom the Academy seems to love, is noticably absent. Not that Invictus was an amazing film or anything, but I'm still surprised to see he wasn't on this list.

Lest you think Invictus has no presence at all though, both Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon both got nods, for Leading and Supporting Actor respectively. While both are a long-shot to win, I still don't like them edging the chances of Jeff Bridges or Jeremy Renner for Leading and Christoph Waltz for Supporting.

On the ladies' side, I think we can expect an almost guaranteed win for Gabourey Sidibe in the Leading Actress category for her pretty stellar debut in Precious. For the Supporting Actresses, I'm pretty sure Nine does not belong up there, but it was nice to see Up in the Air grabbing double nominations; very well deserved.

As for the Screenplay portions, the nominations are fairly awesome. District 9, Up in the Air, The Hurt Locker, Basterds and Up all receiving nods in their respective categories.

For the Foreign Language films, The White Ribbon has been getting a lot of buzz lately, and I would be quite surprised if it didn't get the win.

As for Animated Feature, the result should be pretty unsurprising, but it's nice to see Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox included with the Disney films. As for The Secret of the Kells, I have not seen it, as it was only given a brief run in the states in order to qualify it for a nomination. It is getting a larger release this March, so I hope to get a chance to check it out then.

Lastly, for Cinematography, there's really only one surprise and that's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If we're going to be nominating movies like that, I think Star Trek deserved the nomination a hell of a lot more, but that's just me.

The full list of nominations for major are below, any thoughts?

BEST PICTURE:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

DIRECTING:
Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
James Cameron - Avatar
Lee Daniels - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:
Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:
Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
Helen Mirren - The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Matt Damon - Invictus
Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Penelope Cruz - Nine
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo’Nique - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Neill Blomkamp and - District 9
Nick Hornby - An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche - In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner - Up in the Air

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
Oren Moverman and - The Messenger
Joel and Ethan Coen - A Serious Man
Pete Docter and Bob Peterson - Up

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Ajami  - Israel
El Secreto de sus Ojos - Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow
Une Prophéte  - France
The White Ribbon - Germany

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of the Kells
Up

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Maurio Fiore - Avatar
Bruno Delbonnel - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Barry Ackroyd - The Hurt Locker
Robert Richardson - Inglourious Basterds
Christian Berger - The White Ribbon

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