The nominations for the Oscars went out this morning and with them, the first round of quick reactions and predictions. After several months of following smaller, but not insignificant awards, here are our official predictions and complaints. Agree? Disagree? Let us know!
Best Picture
The Artist
War Horse
Moneyball
The Descendants
Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Who Will Win: The Artist. It’s had all the steam throughout the early awards season, and it doesn’t appear any of the other films have the clout to take it down.
Who Should Win: Really it’s a wide open category if The Artist loses, but look for The Descendants to take the statue if Oscar voters aren’t into French silent films.
Who Was Snubbed: Young Adult. Not a single nomination for Jason Reitman’s latest. It’s surprising The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo got nothing, but the lack of any love for Young Adult is a travesty.
Best Actress
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Viola Davis, The Help
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Who Will Win: Michelle Williams. She’s clearly been the front runner through most of awards season and though Meryl Streep has had a lot of buzz, Williams is by the far the safest bet of all nominees.
Who Should Win: If not Williams, it will be Meryl Streep. The other three nominees are all deserving, but Oscar politics always trump anything else.
Who Was Snubbed: Tilda Swinton. I’m not sure if We Need to Talk About Kevin was eligable for the Oscars, but if it was, it’s a travesty she didn’t get a nod. Also deserving: Charlize Theron, who carried Young Adult.
Best Actor
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Clooney, The Descendants
Brad Pitt, Moneyball
Demián Bichir, A Better Life
Who Will Win: George Clooney. He has a Supporting Actor award already, and as is the Oscar way, he’ll win because it’s his time.
Who Should Win: Honestly, this category is dynamite. If it’s not Clooney, expect either Oldman, Dujardin, or Pitt, in that order.
Who Was Snubbed: Michael Fassbender for Shame and Michael Shannon for Take Shelter. Two of the most talked about performances of the year got no attention. I expected at least one to get a nod, and it’s surprising neither of them did.
Best Supporting Actress
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Who Will Win: Jessica Chastain. Sometimes the Oscars are about welcoming people into the community of Oscar winners, and after a huge year, expect Chastain to get that honor.
Who Should Win: This is another loaded category in which anyone has a convincing argument, but if it’s not Chastain, Bejo could steal the show.
Who Was Snubbed: Though she really didn’t get nominated for any other awards, Shailene Woodley from The Descendants deserved at least a little attention for her breakthrough performance.
Best Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Max Von Sydow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Who Will Win: Christopher Plummer. This is the closest thing to a lock in this year’s ceremony.
Who Should Win: Honestly, Plummer. He owns Beginners and is truthfully the most deserving.
Who Was Snubbed: Albert Brooks. Without a doubt the biggest snub of the Oscars. Though no one expected him to beat Plummer, not even getting nominated was absolutely crazy. Special Mention also goes to Patton Oswalt for Young Adult.
Best Director
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick, Tree of Life
Who Will Win: Martin Scorsese. When Oscar voters are in doubt, they always go with one of the all time greats.
Who Should Win: Alexander Payne. Consider it the consolation prize for The Descendants if The Artist picks up Best Picture.
Who Was Snubbed: David Fincher is notably absent from this list, but given the overall lack of love for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, it’s not too surprising.
Best Original Screenplay
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, Bridesmaids
J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Asgar Farhadi, A Separation
Who Will Win: Woody Allen. Midnight in Paris was a phenomenal film, and given his uneven work in the last 10 years, this could be the Academy’s last chance to honor one of the greats.
Who Should Win: Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo have the best shot at sneaking in if Allen doesn’t win. Hazanavicius has a shot as well, but he’ll win elsewhere, leaving the door open for the breakthrough comedy duo.
Who Was Snubbed: Diablo Cody for Young Adult. It’s ridiculous this film didn’t get a single nomination. It rank with Albert Brooks as one of the biggest snubs of the year.
Best Adapted Sceenplay
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Descendants
John Logan, Hugo
Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, Moneyball
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon, Ides of March
Peter Straughan and Bridget O’Connor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Who Will Win: Payne, Faxon, and Rash. Again, look for The Descendants to pick up a bunch of awards that aren’t Best Picture. That’s not to detract from the fact that they actually deserve this award though.
Who Should Win: If the Descendants lose, the safe money is on Sorkin and Zaillian, picking up Moneyball’s consolation prize.
Who Was Snubbed: Yasmina Reza and Roman Polanski for Carnage. Easily one of the funniest films I saw all year.
After all the speculation, we finally have our nominees! The King’s Speech lead the nominations with twelve, with The Social Network also doing pretty darn good. The nominations are below, along with our suggestions of who was snubbed in the major categories. We’ll have some more insightful predictions to share before the February 27 ceremony.
A year after the tag team effort of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, the Oscars are again turning to a pair of big names to host their annual ceremonies, this time with Anne Hathaway and James Franco. While there’s been no official word, the story is being widely reported, and originated from the always accurate (no sarcasm) Nikki Finke. What’s particularly interesting about this move is that Franco himself might be up for an Oscar for 127 Hours and lots of good things have been said about Hathaway in Love and Other Drugs. There is recent awards show precedence however, since Neil Patrick Harris hosted the Emmys the same year he was nominated. Of course, the Emmys are like Burger King to the Oscars’ Chili’s, so I guess it doesn’t really matter. Either way, it should be an interesting pairing to watch.
Well the Oscars are over, and while we had 
As strange as it may sound, the producers of this year’s Oscar broadcast have asked the nominees to prepare two speeches in the even that they win. The idea is that the winners will deliver a speech on stage in front of the millions of viewers around the world where they touch on what the Oscar means to them or something in that vein. They’ll then go backstage, where a camera will be set up for them to share all of their thank yous with the hundreds of people watching online. While it will probably make for some more interesting speeches, it does kind of suck for the people getting thanked. Of course, the nominees can (and probably will) completely disregard this rule.
It’s a big morning in Hollywood with the announcement of this year’s Oscar nominees. There’s not a ton of surprises, especially with a bigger list of Best Picture nominees this year, so the nod for District 9 makes a little more sense there. We’ll be sure to give you our analysis as the big day approaches, but for now, be sure to check out our Best of 2009 
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