The 83rd Academy Awards

The date is fast approaching. On February 27th, 2011, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will award its coveted statue for film achievement in 2010. Today, the Academy released the nomination list, and in my opinion, there are not any major upsets. This marks the second year where the Academy widened the Best Picture category to ten nominations as opposed to the traditional five. This allows for recognition of films that deserve the nomination, but aren't traditional category fare. The King's Speech leads the pack of films with 12 nominations, followed by The Social Network with 8 nominations.

For a list of all of the nominations, and who I think deserves to win in each category, please check below the cut!



BEST PICTURE:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

DIRECTING:
Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan
David O. Russell - The Fighter
Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
David Fincher - The Social Network
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - True Grit

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:
Javier Bardem - Biutiful
Jeff Bridges - True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
Colin Firth - The King's Speech
James Franco - 127 Hours

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:
Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman - Black Swan
Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Christian Bale - The Fighter
John Hawkes - Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner - The Town
Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Amy Adams - The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech
Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Biutiful, Mexico
Dogtooth, Greece
In a Better World, Denmark
Incendies, Canada
Outside the Law, Algeria

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

ART DIRECTION:
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
The Social Network
True Grit

COSTUME DESIGN:
Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King's Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

FILM EDITING:
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land

MAKEUP:
Barney's Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman

ORIGINAL SCORE:
How to Train Your Dragon
Inception
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

ORIGINAL SONG:
"Coming Home" from Country Strong
"I See the Light" from Tangled
"If I Rise" from 127 Hours
"We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3

SOUND MIXING:
Inception
The King's Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

SOUND EDITING:
Inception
Toy Story 3
TRON: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

ANIMATED SHORT FILM:
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let's Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, carnet de voyage

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM:
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

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Top 10 of 2010

TOP 10 OF

I know I'm running a little late, but I wanted to give a breakdown of my top 10 favorite movies of this last year. There were a lot of great ones.... and some not so great. I considered many factors when choosing my favorite movies of the years. I weighted both technical merits such as acting, direction, or writing and the overall entertainment value I got from watching the movie.


10 | The Crazies

This movie was actually really surprising, and a lot better than I was expecting it to be. I was going through the list of all the movies I saw last year, starting at the beginning, and this was the first one that popped out at me. It wasn’t bad at all. This is one of those movies where the entertainment value outweighed the technical aspects of the movie. That’s not to say that the technical merits don’t stand well on their own. This is one of those movies that keeps you at the edge of your seat, and definitely one of the better horror movies in recent years (even if it is a remake, and you know how I feel about those!)

9 | Tangled

Give me anything Disney, and I'll love it. That's because the studio has a tendency for creating pretty solid movies. Tangled is more of a return to what the studio had to offer during its renaissance era of the 90's; more so than The Princess and the Frog from two years ago. Alan Menken returns to write and compose the music for this twisted adaption of the Rapunzel fairy tale. I caught this in theaters a couple of times, and loved every minute of it.

8 | How To Train Your Dragon

I have to say… I’m not a huge fan of DreamWorks Animation. None of their movies have really captured me as much as any of Pixar’s movies. I was shocked when I watched this movie and it was of the quality of a Pixar movie. The movie was so magical and heartfelt, and they don’t actually rely on physical humor like the studio’s other offerings (ie, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, etc). Check out my complete review here.

7 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I

I’m a Harry Potter fanatic. It’s not healthy how obsessed with this franchise I am. That said, this film is definitely the best of the entire series, up to this point. Granted, it’s based off of, in my opinion, the best book of the series, so I don’t think that is saying much. The scope of the movie is fantastic, and the main trio has never acted better. I was skeptical at first when David Yates stayed on as director for the two-part finale. I wasn’t a huge fan of his two other Potter directorial efforts (Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince). Let’s just say I am impressed and looking forward to the epic finale.

6 | The Social Network

This should probably be higher on the list, but honestly, it’s only this low on the list because of how much more impressed and entertained I am by some last year’s later releases. When this movie wins awards, and it will, it will deserve them. It’s definitely a dramatization of how Facebook was started, but it’s intense, well written, and well acted by all involved.

5 | Black Swan

For starters, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis make out in this movie. Seriously though, Aronofsky delivers with this suspenseful, psychological thriller. It was definitely an experience witnessing the beautiful, yet horrific transformation that the main character goes through. I’m kind of iffy about the ending, but it was expected with how dark the movie was. This isn’t one of those casual movie going experiences, so be ready for it.

4 | Toy Story 3

Even though these toys are not my own, I literally grew up with them. It was a beautiful, touching goodbye to my childhood. It’s just as good as it’s predecessors. I don’t necessarily agree with the Best Picture nomination it’s campaigning for because it does have some pretty fierce competition in the Best Animated Movie category and that should be their main focus. Regardless, this is one of my favorite movies of the year and another solid release from arguably the best animation studio.

3 | Inception

BMMMFFHFHHHH. BMMMFFHFHHHH. BMMMFFHFHHHH. This movie blew my mind. Everything about it is literally epic. The acting, writing, direction, production, special effects, score, EVERYTHING. Christopher Nolan is a genius. There is not a minute of drag in this movie in its near two and a half hour runtime, and I’m saying that after watching it a few times. And if you want to know my opinion, it’s not all a dream.

2 | True Grit

This was almost my top movie of the year, and it would have been if I didn’t end up seeing my top pick. This movie is brilliant. Check out my full review here.

1 | The Fighter

I almost didn’t see this movie, and if I was only counting movies that I actually saw during 2010, this movie wouldn’t have made the list, but because it was released last year, I’m counting it. I have been hearing a lot of buzz around this film lately, and I really wanted to see it, but I’m not a big fan of boxing movies and hard dramas (which I thought it was). It was surprisingly light-hearted and deep at the same time. It especially hit home. I love dramas that know how to handle darker material and stay entertaining at the same time. The movie also ends on a high note, and I love a good happy ending.

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2010 Salute to Cinema

I reached 100 movies! I went through my list and audited what I have seen this year. Somehow, I managed to skip a couple of movies on my list, so I added them on.

In celebration of this year in cinema, the following is a beautiful montage of some of the movies that 2010 had to offer. I saw the video that Ben Zuk made last year, and it was pretty awesome. Check it out if you are interested: 2009: Moments in Film.

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