Oscar nominations: Ben Affleck, Chris Nolan among those left off the list

 
This year's two heist movies, one of the mind, one of the cash, were robbed of Oscar nominations for their respective directors. Ben Affleck missed a nomination for "The Town," and his Boston-set heist film was also omitted from the Top 10 list. In fact, the film, which grossed more than $92 million at the box office, received only one nomination -- for supporting actor Jeremy Renner. In contrast, Christopher Nolan's "Inception" tracked down eight nominations, but Nolan was not honored for his directing efforts.

Rather, the academy chose Darren Aronofsky for "Black Swan," David O. Russell for "The Fighter," Tom Hooper for "The King's Speech," David Fincher for "The Social Network" and Joel and Ethan Coen for "True Grit."

In the acting category, the biggest snub probably belonged to Andrew Garfield, who was left off the supporting actor list in favor of John Hawkes of "Winter's Bone." And in the acting category, Ryan Gosling's performance in "Blue Valentine" was ignored by the Academy in favor of Javier Bardem, who received a nomination for "Biutiful."

-- Nicole Sperling

Photo: Jon Hamm in "The Town." Credit: Warner Bros.

Comments

[Matt Gaddis]

In my opinion the biggest snubs by the Academy (and most critics have agreed) are in the Best Picture, Best Leading Actor, Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director categories.
1. "Get Low" and "Another Year" were far superior films to "The Fighter," whose only notables were it's extraordinary cast and it's reality-based storyline. Nearly all of the major critics agreed that the former two films more deserved the Best Picture nod.
2. Both Robert Duvall's and Jim Broadbent's performances in "Get Low" and "Another Year" garnered more praise among critics than either Javier Bardiem's or James Franco's. At least one of them should have been nominated over the latter two Best Actor nominees, and especially over Ryan Gosling's riveting, but "8th best of the year," performance.
3. Halle Berry's performance was the most talked about transformation of the year among top critics, apart from Natalie Portman's. I quite possibly could be "Winter's Bone" biggest fan, having seen it six times now, but Berry deserved the nod more than the screen-debuting performance be Jennifer Lawerence, who herself stated that the role was not a departure for her at all, she simply wore no make-up and reverted back to her southern upbringing. The gritty story and cinematography of "Winter's Bone" give support to Lawerence's role, however Berry created a character unlike any we've ever seen on film, from the ground up, with only her character's demensions to support her. Even Julianne Moore's performance in "The Kids Are All Right" was more touching, skilled, and transformative.
4. Any true movie goer (and nearly every major film critic) was appalled that Lesley Manville's performance in Mike Leigh's ghastly under-appreciated "Another Year" was not recognized in the Best Supporting Actress category. Again, let me start by saying that "True Grit" deserves every bit of recognition it has garnered, and more, for I have paid three times to view the film at the cinema, but fourteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld's by the book, simplistic performance should be praised for being an astonishingly adept portrayal for a fourteen-year-old first-time film actress. When it comes to the Academy Awards, Manville should have gotten the nod for the superior talent, with Steinfeld receiving and Young Artist award or something comparable.
5. The Best Supporting Actor category is a tough argument because I am not sure who to omit out of the five nominees to make room for Bill Murray's insanely nuanced performance in "Get Low." If I had to choose, I would have left out Ruffalo, however "The Kids Are All Right" is one of my top 5 films of the year.
6. Finally, both Christopher Nolan and Mike Leigh deserved the Best Director nomination over David O. Russell, and nearly all of the reviewers of their three films would agree. The Academy has gripped on to "The Fighter" becuse the biggest fight surrounding the film was the fight to get it made, which Russell was a huge part of. This in no way makes his directing achievement greater than the ground-breaking mastery of Nolan's "Inception" or the Leigh's "Another Year," which Roger Ebert, Richard Roeper and Ricahard Corliss have all described the most heart-wrenching and real portrait of a middle-aged unit in decades.

In conclusion, the Academy made fewer mistakes this year than in year's past, but the mistaken choices were off pretty big this year. However, what can we expect from an institution that has routinely honored the near-dead, the infantile, and the most glamorous "campaigning efforts" over what should be honored to, in turn, elevate the craft and film medium, which after all is the purpose of the Academy Awards in the first place.

[Jon]

Can we please throw out most of the members of the music branch? They really are snobs! Where is Diane Warren?!?!? It is shocking that they snubbed her. Why is there only four nominees for Best Song? There is really no excuse when most categories have five nominees to leave out the song that would have won had she been nominated. First Beyonce being omitted from the Best Song list b/c only three writers can get nominated per song, and several other songs over the last few years (see "Brokeback Mountain") being omitted shows how out of touch the music branch is. Hopefully, this will light a fire, so to speak, in that branch and create real change ala Tony Bennett's Best Album of the Year win at the Grammy's.