1. Best Picture: "Avatar," "The Blind Side," "District 9," "An
Education," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Precious: Based
on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," "A Serious Man," "Up," "Up in the
Air."
2. Actor: Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"; George Clooney,
"Up in the Air"; Colin Firth, "A Single Man"; Morgan Freeman,
"Invictus"; Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker."
3. Actress:
Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side"; Helen Mirren, "The Last Station";
Carey Mulligan, "An Education"; Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious: Based on
the Novel `Push' by Sapphire"; Meryl Streep, "Julie & Julia."
4.
Supporting Actor: Matt Damon, "Invictus"; Woody Harrelson, "The
Messenger"; Christopher Plummer, "The Last Station"; Stanley Tucci,
"The Lovely Bones"; Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds."
5.
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Nine"; Vera Farmiga, "Up in the
Air"; Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Crazy Heart"; Anna Kendrick, "Up in the Air";
Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."
6.
Directing: James Cameron, "Avatar"; Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker";
Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds"; Lee Daniels, "Precious:
Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"; Jason Reitman, "Up in the Air."
7. Foreign Language Film: "Ajami," Israel; "El Secreto de Sus
Ojos," Argentina; "The Milk of Sorrow," Peru; "Un Prophete," France;
"The White Ribbon," Germany.
8. Adapted Screenplay: Neill
Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, "District 9"; Nick Hornby, "An Education";
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, "In the
Loop"; Geoffrey Fletcher, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by
Sapphire"; Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, "Up in the Air."
9.
Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, "The Hurt Locker"; Quentin Tarantino,
"Inglourious Basterds"; Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, "The
Messenger"; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "A Serious Man"; Bob Peterson,
Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy, "Up."
10. Animated Feature Film: "Coraline"; "Fantastic Mr. Fox"; "The Princess and the Frog"; "The Secret of Kells"; "Up."
11. Art Direction: "Avatar," "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," "Nine," "Sherlock Holmes," "The Young Victoria."
12.
Cinematography: "Avatar," "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,"
"The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "The White Ribbon."
13. Sound Mixing: "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Star Trek," "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."
14. Sound Editing: "Avatar," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Star Trek," "Up."
15.
Original Score: "Avatar," James Horner; "Fantastic Mr. Fox," Alexandre
Desplat; "The Hurt Locker," Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders; "Sherlock
Holmes," Hans Zimmer; "Up," Michael Giacchino.
16. Original
Song: "Almost There" from "The Princess and the Frog," Randy Newman;
"Down in New Orleans" from "The Princess and the Frog," Randy Newman;
"Loin de Paname" from "Paris 36," Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas;
"Take It All" from "Nine," Maury Yeston; "The Weary Kind (Theme from
Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart," Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.
17. Costume: "Bright Star," "Coco Before Chanel," "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," "Nine," "The Young Victoria."
18.
Documentary Feature: "Burma VJ," "The Cove," "Food, Inc." "The Most
Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,"
"Which Way Home."
19. Documentary (short subject): "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 a la Berlin."
20. Film Editing:
"Avatar," "District 9," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds,"
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."
21. Makeup: "Il Divo," "Star Trek," "The Young Victoria."
22.
Animated Short Film: "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."
23. Live Action Short Film: "The Door," "Instead of Abracadabra," "Kavi," "Miracle Fish," "The New Tenants."
24. Visual Effects: "Avatar," "District 9," "Star Trek."
I am disappoint. David "Solid Snake" Hayter deserved a screenwriting nomination for turning a 12 part comicbook epic into a faithful Hollywood adaption of Watchmen. Say what you will about the movie, the casting, the effects and all that jazz, but even Alan Moore himself said that Hayter's screenplay is the closest any person will come to turning his work into a movie.
Coming from Alan "I hate Hollywood" Moore, that is a big compliment.
Plus--- Solid Snake winning an Oscar. You crushed my dreams, academy.
Avatar should only win Art Direction and Cinematography, although I'm guessing it will win more =(
and I second Craig's nomination for Solid Snake.
I'm rooting for 'Inglorious', 'Hurt Locker' and 'Up'. And I'd like to see 'District 9' get something too, but I doubt it's going to take Best Picture.
The fact that Sandra Bullock is up for Best Actress and not Mélanie Laurent (Shoshanna in 'Inglorious') makes me feel rage. Friggin' Academy and their constant falling for Pretentious Oscar Bait.
Might have something to do with the fact she spends nearly the entire movie in another language. Still, dick move.
I'm pleasantly surprised to see District 9 in there. Of course that's just going to make Avatar's win ridiculous. District 9 was science fiction with a message, whereas Avatar was a message with science fiction. I completely agree with Hiro's sentiment.
It would be cool to have Up win Best Picture too. Prove that animated movies aren't relegated to the animation category.
That and if "UP!" wins then it will be the first animated movie to win Best Picture.
Let's not forget that the Animated Feature category was introduced with indecent haste after Beauty and the Beast became the first animation to ever get a Best Picture nomination, in the same way that the Hugo changed the rules to bar graphic novels from entering the day after Neil Gaiman's A Midsummer Night's Dream took the award.
I'd heard that people were looking to see if animations were technically barred from the main category as soon as Ratatouille came out. I literally cheered when I saw that Up got a nomination this year.
It now potentially shows the Academy up. What's the point of having a Best Animated Feature category when one of its shortlist is already up for Best Picture? If Up hasn't won the Animated category before the ceremony even starts, by definition, someone's going to look silly.
It's now been repeatedly proven that the animated artform doesn't need to be ghettoised. I wonder how long before people start complaining that it should be allowed to play outside of the sandbox again?
I also agree with Hiro, but don't like the odds. Although I'd be happy enough to see Cameron lose to The Hurt Locker - something that cost around 1/50 of Avatar's budget, according to reports. 
Kathryn Bigelow directed The Hurt Locker, Cameron's EX. So I guess the jokes will run rampant if she beats Cameron for Best Director or even Best Picture (But I still want UP to win Best Picture).
I'm surprised that UP wasn't nominated for Art Direction.
I'm just sad that this is all fallout from last year's Oscars which snubbed the hell out of Wall-E (and to a lesser degree Dark Knight). Wall-E is one of the greatest pieces of art ever animated and has the benefit of being entertaining to children and grown-ups alike, stylized to the point of being timeless (especially as it melds all modern utilities with the retro junk) and daring as all loving heck.
Nominating Up is just making up for not nominating Wall-E, and that is the big shame to me. Up was a decent movie and the first 10 minutes were able to capture the sheer emotional resonance of animation and music that Wall-E was more or less comprised of... but the story as a whole was just less substantial. It felt almost Dreamworks at time with it's abundance of cute mascot characters and cheap laughs.
I LIKE Up, I really do. I cried three times the first time I saw it, compared to once during Wall-E. But--- it's just not fair that Up gets the distinction of being the first animated nominee since B&tB.
Also this was a really crap year for cinema. Like REALLY crap. I suppose it's refreshing to see a nomination list not made up of movies which came out in the last week of December for a change, but... there's just nothing in here that I care about. Even with the yuppy "effects movie" nominations.
But, hey. I was ranting about Watchmen of all things. So I have no right to complain.
Infact, given how bad the year was. Up is probably a good shot.
Kathryn Bigelow directed The Hurt Locker, Cameron's EX. So I guess the jokes will run rampant if she beats Cameron
They were already flying after she beat him at the DGA Awards - especially since there've only been six times when the winner there hasn't gone on to win the Oscar.
What was TDK snubbed out of last year?
What Sam said. The moment I saw "Up" as a candidate for best picture, I cheered. Finally, a chance for animation to get the spotlight they deserve, though I fear what'll happen if it doesn't win. Will it face another "Beauty and the Beast" repeat? Granted, I also think "Up" isn't Pixar's best either, but still, just seeing it up there brings a tear to my eye.
Last year's TDK stuff is mostly internet backlash so difficult to see what the true public opinion is, but it did deserve some of the effects awards and such. I find it bullcrap that Benjamin Button won both make-up AND CGI for making Brad Pitt look old. You use one or the other. Using both does not make you best.
But seriously, I don't think TDK is as good as the world seems to think it is, so don't care.
Okay, yea I can see that. I'm not the biggest TDK fan but the awards you mentioned, it deserved.
Man...Princess and the Frog, what happened to that?!
Is it petty of me that I don't care what wins, as long as Avatar doesn't? Someone needs to put their foot down and step on Avatar fever.
Moon is nowhere on that list. Shame. Best film I saw last year.
I'm actually a little heartened to learn I'm not the only one who had serious issues with Avatar. Weeks and weeks of it atop the box office made me begin to think something was wrong with me.
What are the issues with Avatar? I too am a bit mystified as to how it's making so much money.
To be fair, the visuals are good, the action scenes were cool, and the name 'James Cameron' is apparently a selling point.
But the plot (holes and all) and story could be summarized as 'Dances with Thundersmurfs in Ferngully'.
Hmmm, I see. Is there any middle ground with this movie, or just James Cameron as of late?
James Cameron of late? The guy stopped existing in 1997 and just materialized out of nothing in the past few months. Which to be fair is exactly what I'd do if I just made Titanic, the highest grossing movie of all time.
But Cameron made T2 and Aliens, the greatest sequels of all time (oh and that "highest grossing movie ever" thing). The guy deserves respect and admiration.
I have not forgotten that but I don't hear many others saying that lately.
