Culture: The Oscar nominations: A bigger field leads to bigger surprises
- nine number of nominations for “Avatar,” the James Cameron megahit that’s already in record territory
- nine number of nominations for “The Hurt Locker,” the war film directed by his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow
Other major nominees
- eight nominations for Quentin Tarantino’s Nazi-killin’ “Inglorious Basterds”
- six nominations for “Up In The Air,” the George Clooney airline flick
- six nominations for “Precious,” including one for the usually-funny Mo’Nique
Best Picture changes
- This year is a weird year for the Best Picture nominees. Rather than the usual five nominations, the Academy has switched to ten, widening the field to the point that the types of movies that never get nominated somehow did this time around, including:
- pixar “Up” got a nomination, finally validating the consistent levels of commendation the 3D animators get.
- sci-fi “District 9” got four nominations, including one for Best Picture – not bad for a director’s first movie.
- popular “The Blind Side,” which had garnered praise for Sandra Bullock’s performance, got one too. Wow. Surprising.
Who got burned this time?
- » The well-reviewed Jeff Bridges/Maggie Gyllenhaal flick “Crazy Heart” got nominations for the stars (and for best song – we called it!), but not for Best Picture.
- » Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” got just one nomination (for Colin Firth’s performance), despite the crazy level of arthouse hype it got. The Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man,” however, did get a Best Picture nomination, which (despite their recent Best Picture win) is somewhat surprising.
- » “The Lovely Bones” scored just one acting nomination – that’s to be expected, as it wasn’t a critical hit – but it didn’t get anything for its fairly solid visual effects, which really sold the film. Peter Jackson did produce “District 9,” however. source
