OK, it’s that time of the year. The awards that mean everything and nothing at the very same time. I will update this as they are announced and follow up with my own little opinions that no one really needs.

PINK – Please Don’t Win
RED – Probably Will Win
ORANGE – I Wish Would Win
GRAY – What a Nice Surprise!

Best 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

Unwanted Commentary: This is a really tough category with a lot of food groups represented. While I don’t feel he deserved it, I’m very surprised that Wahlberg’s not in here. Franco’s hosting the show, would it be feel-good Oscar shit if he won? I don’t know, but that movie hinges wholly on his work.

Best 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

Unwanted Commentary: Bale has this locked up, but how awesome is it that the amazing and delightful John Hawkes is now an Oscar nominee? That said, I think Rush deserves this award. Bale is a virtuoso and has a much more showy awards bait role… which is exactly why I want Rush to win.

Best 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

Unwanted Commentary: Great diversity, one of the best actress crops we’ve had in a long time. I wanted to puke when Oscar Winner Mo’Nique walked onstage to announce the award nominations. There isn’t an empty vessel in the bunch here though Natalie has the juiciest and most deserving slot (slang).

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham-Carter, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Stansfield, True Grit
Jackie Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Unwanted Commentary: Leo is going to win. It’s obvious. She’s the feel-good story here. A decent crop all considered. And note to HBC: See what happens when you aren’t in shitty Tim Burton movies?

Best Adapted Screenplay

127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Unwanted Commentary: Sorkin. Sorry everyone else, but he made a story that had no right being great be totally great.

Best Animated Feature

How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

Unwanted Commentary: I’m the guy who’s not big on Toy Story 3. Sorry.

Best Animated Short Film

Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, carnet de voyage

Best Art Direction

Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

Unwanted Commentary: I haven’t seen Harry Potter, Part 20 but I can’t imagine it’s much different from the other 19 Harry Potter films, but Inception did a fabulous job of being familiar and fresh and totally in tune with the balance of the material. And fuck Alice in Wonderland.

Best Cinematography

Black Swan, Matthew Libatique
Inception, Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech, Danny Cohen
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit, Roger Deakins

Unwanted Commentary: A lot of good choices, but come on… Deakins.

Best Costume Design

Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

Unwanted Commentary: Indifference is thy name.

Best Director

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David O. Russell, The Fighter
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
David Fincher, The Social Network
Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit

Unwanted Commentary: I love the Coens more than water, but True Grit is doing everything it is supposed to and deserves. It’s not Best Picture or Best Director material. I wouldn’t mind if Darren, Hooper, or Fincher won. The Fighter is a good flick but not colossal. Which is why it’ll probably win most of the big ones.

Best Documentary Feature

Exit through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land

Unwanted Commentary: I haven’t seen most of these but I bet nothing’s as good as Banksy’s classic.

Best Documentary Short Subject

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

Best Film Editing

Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter Paramount Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Tariq Anwar
127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) Jon Harris
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Unwanted Commentary: A no-lose situation really, but The Fighter should have been replaced by Inception here.

Best Foreign Language Film

Biutiful Mexico
Dogtooth Greece
In a Better World Denmark
Incendies Canada
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) Algeria

Best Makeup

The Way Back
The Wolf Man
Barney’s Version

Best Original Score

How to Train Your Dragon (Paramount) John Powell
Inception (Warner Bros.) Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) A.R. Rahman
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Unwanted Commentary: Where the hell is Daft Punk? The best score and soundtrack of the year… SHAFTED.

Best Visual Effects

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

Unwanted Commentary: Whatever.

Best Original Screenplay

Another Year, Written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception, Written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right, Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech, Screenplay by David Seidler

Unwanted Commentary: So, apparently an entire suburb of Boston wrote The Fighter.

Best 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

Unwanted Commentary: This category needs to get the fuck out of my face.

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

Unwanted Commentary: It’s nice to see only two populist movies in here. A good crop.

Best Sound Editing

Inception
Toy Story 3
Tron: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

Unwanted Commentary: Fuck trains.

Best Sound Mixing

Inception
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

Unwanted Commentary: Salt is an Oscar nominee.

Live Action Short Film

The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143