Oscar Nominations: Surprises and Omissions

Interesting. Very interesting. Needless to say, Tuesday morning was a tad unpredictable. As Jennifer Lawrence and Tom Sherak announced the Oscar nominations, it became clearer and clearer that anything goes this year. It seemed to me there were more surprises than usual, which, obviously, is not a bad thing.
If you read my last post you'll see I made some predictions. Without making you go back and read that post, I'll fill you in on how I did.
Hugo and The Artist will lead with 10 nominations apiece
Hugo actually led with 11, however, I was correct about The Artist getting 10.
Jessica Chastain and Michael Fassbender will receive first nominations
I was right about Chastain and wrong about Fassbender.
Meryl Streep will earn her 17th nod
Anyone could have predicted that.
Glenn Close would receive her sixth

Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Again, not very surprising.
Gary Oldman will be snubbed once again
I'm happy to say I was wrong here. Oldman, at long last, got his first Oscar call.
There will be seven, not 10, Best Picture nominees
There were nine. And one of my predicted seven didn't make it.
This is what I predicted. Corrections are in red.
1. The Artist In
2. Hugo  In
3. The Descendants  In
4. The Help In
5. Midnight in Paris In
6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Out
7. War Horse In
If 10 films do make it, these three will round out the list.
8. Moneyball In
9. Drive Out
10. The Tree of Life In
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close In


Notable Surprises

Tom Hanks and Thomas Horn in
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for Best Picture
Maybe I let my opinions get too involved here, but I'm very surprised this movie made it. I can honestly say it's one of my least favorite movies of the year, and I thought there was no way it would get the necessary five percent of first place votes to get nominated. I was, obviously, wrong on this one.
Demian Bichir (A Better Life) and Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) nominated for Best Actor

Oldman has been long deserving this, but it still seemed like a stretch. He actually benefited from never being nominated before because I think voters really wanted to see him get some overdue notice. Since his performance was subtle and the movie was a bit confusing, if he had been previously nominated, he wouldn't have made it this year. Bichir, I think, was the biggest surprise of them all. I think he had a lot of other actors pulling for him. He wasn't named by a lot of critic groups or award shows, but he did get a surprise nod at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which is chosen solely by actors. I'm guessing a bunch of actors put him first on their ballots.

Jonah Hill (Moneyball) and Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) received first nominations

For two comic actors, this is quite an achievement. When The Sitter is released on DVD they can market it by saying it features "Oscar nominee Jonah Hill." Doesn't that sound weird? And who would have thought an actress would ever get nominated for a role in which she poops in a sink? Well, McCarthy made it happen. Though, she is the main reason to see Bridesmaids.

Other surprises:

Terrence Malick for Best Director (The Tree of Life)

Rooney Mara for Best Actress (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)

Margin Call for Original Screenplay

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for Adapted Screenplay

A Separation for Original Screenplay

Notable Omissions

Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan missing out for Shame

Fassbender in Shame.

Shame was rated NC-17, which might have been too much for some of the older Oscar voters. Shame didn't receive a single nomination, but Fassbender was the biggest miss for sure. I think it was one of the most real and devastating performances I've seen in some time. The Academy missed one here.
Ryan Gosling left out twice

Gosling is easily one of the best actors working today and he had two great performances this year in The Ides of March and Drive. He was screwed last year too when he wasn't nominated for Blue Valentine. I hope this doesn't become a trend.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo not a Best Picture contender

Based on how much love the Academy seemed to have for David Fincher last year, I thought it would carry over to this year. Maybe it was too dark for some voters. And maybe other voters don't like remakes. Though they had no problem giving Best Picture to The Departed in 2006 which is a remake of a Chinese film called Infernal Affairs.

Other Omissions:

The Adventures of Tin Tin with no nod for Animated Feature

Leonardo DiCaprio in J. Edgar

Shailene Woodley in The Descendants

Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin

Albert Brooks in Drive

So those are your snubs and surprises for this year's Oscar nominee list. As a side note, Brad Pitt and John Williams were very happy men come Tuesday morning. Not only was Pitt nominated for Best Actor for Moneyball, he's also nominated as a producer for Moneyball. And Williams added his 46th and 47th career Oscar nominations for composing the scores to the Steven Spielberg films War Horse and The Adventures of Tin Tin. This is also the 15th time he's been nominated twice in one year.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more on the Oscars and the year in movies.