2009 Academy Award Nominations Announced!

It's that wonderful time of year again, when the Oscar nominations are announced and the blog-o-sphere heats up with discussions of who got robbed, who should win, and what in the world is Angelina Jolie going to wear??!! That last one, I could give two shits about. But I love the Academy Awards, mostly because I love films so much that I appreciate the idea of honoring people's work in the arts and this is the biggest and best award that an actor/actress can win in my opinion. After the jump you can few the full list of nominees, plus my rundown of who I think got robbed, who should win and who shouldn't win.

2009 Academy Award Nominations

Best Picture

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air


-I'm so happy that they expanded the field to 10 films, because it gives great genre films a chance to be recognized. If there were still only 5, District 9 never would have gotten nomintated for Best Picture even though it deserves to. Unfortunately this means stuff like the Blind Side gets let in, but look at last year when it was only 5 films and yet still filled with way more shitty films than this year. Aside from the Blind Side, all of these deserve the nomination whereas last year 3 of the 5 didn't: Benjamin Button (one of the worst films All-Time), Milk, The Reader. This is one of the better fields I can remember for Best Picture, but I really hope people remember the lesson of Titanic and not give it to the movie that made the most money since it does not deserve to win. The visuals were great but the story sucked, Avatar was a complete let-down.

Robbed: Star Trek or the Hangover. With 10 nominations slots open, they should have recognized a comedy and Hangover was the best but it got passed over for the Blind Side. And it obviously was a choice between District 9 or Star Trek, and I think they made the right call with District 9, but I still would have liked to see Trek nominated.

Should Win: My picks in order of preference: Up in the Air, Inglorious Basterds, The Hurt Locker, Up, District 9, An Education. If any of those win, I'll be happy. Do you see what I mean by this being the best field in recent years? Note: While Up was my favorite film of '09, that was a personal choice but I feel that Up in the Air was the best film I saw last year, followed closely by the Hurt Locker.

Shouldn't Win: Avatar. My god, that film only deserves a nomination and that is it. Does anyone remember when Titanic won? And has now dropped off the face of the Earth to the point that if someone points to it as their favorite film they get ridiculed? While Gladiator, Fargo, and Saving Private Ryan are both viable picks for favorite film status? The same thing is going to happen with Avatar. There's going to be films with better visual effects and Avatar is one day going to look as cheesy as Jurassic Park does now, meaning that the story is going to have to carry the film. District 9? Without the special effects, it would still deserve to be nominated. I can't say the same for Avatar.


Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Robbed: The only one I can think of is Sharlto Copely, who carried District 9 with his performance as Wikus. But I don't think he deserved a spot over any of these great performances.
Should Win: Renner. His performance in the Hurt Locker was excellent. But, I really want to see Clooney or Bridges win, especially since if Renner wins he might not want to be Hawkeye in the Avengers, and he'd be perfect for it.
Shouldn't Win: Out of these, I unfortunately have to say Freeman. I love Morgan Freeman, but I don't think he stacks up to the rest of these guys.


Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Robbed: You know, it's weird. The films that I really loved this year were all missing that really strong female presence except for Up in the Air which both got suporting noms for. So I don't have anyone that was robbed.
Should Win: Either Mulligan or Sidibe. I haven't seen most of these films, but these two actresses were excellent this year.
Shouldn't Win: Streep. That movie looked like shit on wheels.


Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Robbed: Either Zack Galifianakis for the Hangover or Jeffrey Dean Morgan for Watchmen. The former was the funniest part of the best comedy this year, while Morgan was perfect as the Comedian.
Should Win: Waltz. And he's going to. The last three years the race for supporting actor was over long before the nods were announced and this year is no different. And all three played villains too (Bardem-Anton Chigurh, Ledger-The Joker, Waltz-Hans Landa). Just something to think about.
Shouldn't Win: Anyone that isn't Christoph Waltz? If I had to pick, it'd be Damen.


Best Supporting Actress
Penélope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious


Robbed: Julianne Moore for A Single Man. How in the hell do you give Cruz a nod for film that everyone hated, and pass up Moore for a film everyone loved? Moore was better. Way better.
Should Win: Farmiga. I think she's great and stole scene from George Clooney in a terrific film, but Mo'Nique will win for Precious and she deserves to. I'm just glad to see Kendrick get a nomination from Up in the Air.
Shouldn't Win: Cruz. Nine looked like vomit in a bucket. Cruz was smoking hot in lingerie in it, but that shouldn't win you an award.

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Robbed: I don't have one, so let me take this opportunity to say how glad I am that Clint Eastwood didn't get nominated for Invictus. That movie reeked of "Oscar bait" film, and I hate those movies on principal.
Should Win: Either Kathryn Bigelow, because Hurt Locker was excellent and the directing spot-on, or Tarantino since it's his best chance to win and he deserves to, plus it could be the biggest night of his career.
Shouldn't Win: JAMES CAMERON. I hate, hate, hate all of the attention he's getting for Avatar which doesn't deserve as much fawning praise as it's being given. If he wins, it's going to be the same bullshit we got with Titanic.

Best Original Screenplay
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson & Tom McCarthy, Up
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Robbed: This might sound strange, but I think that Zombieland got robbed for this. While I don't think that it was necessarily a better film than any of these, I think that it was an incredibly well-written film.
Should Win: Tarantino. But any of these guys deserve to win, I'm just pulling for my boy.
Shouldn't Win: Nobody. They all deserve it.


Best Adapted Screenplay
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche, In the Loop
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Robbed: I would have loved to have seen Star Trek get nominated for this.
Should Win: Blomkamp for D-9. That film was an inspiring Sci-Fi story, a much harder feat writing-wise than any of the other dramas it's up against.
Shouldn't Win: In the Loop. Fuck that movie.
Best Animated Film
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Robbed: Uhm, nothing. I've never even heard of the The Secret of Kells, but I'm sure it's better than Ice Age 3.
Should Win: Up. It got a best pic nod for a reason. It's that good.
Shouldn't Win: The Secret of Kells. Seriously, WTF is this film?

The rest of the categories:
Best Foreign Language Film:

El Secreto do Sus Ojos (Argentina)
Un Prophete (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)
Ajami (Israel)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)

Best Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria


Best Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon


Best Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Best Documentary
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Best Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious


Best Makeup
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria


Best Score
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up


Best Song
“Almost There,” The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans,” The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname,” Paris 36, Reinhardt Wagner & Frank Thomas
“Take It All,” Nine, Maury Weston
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart, T-Bone Burnett & Ryan Bingham


Best Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Best Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Best Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

Best Animated Short
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Live-Action Short
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants