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The Oscars: A wrapup of nominees
Staff and wire reports
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The British monarchy saga “The King’s Speech” led the Academy Awards with 12 nominations Tuesday, including best picture and acting honors for Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush.
Also nominated for best picture were the psychosexual thriller “Black Swan”; the boxing drama “The Fighter”; the sci-fi blockbuster “Inception”; the lesbian-family tale “The Kids Are All Right”; the survival story “127 Hours”; the Facebook chronicle “The Social Network”; the animated smash “Toy Story 3”; the Western “True Grit”; and the Ozarks crime thriller “Winter’s Bone.” “True Grit,” which was filmed primarily in Central Texas, ran second with 10 nominations, including acting honors for Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld.
The Feb. 27 Oscars set up a best-picture showdown between two favorites, “The King’s Speech” and “The Social Network.” “The Social Network” won best drama at the Golden Globes and was picked as the year’s best by key critics groups, while “The King’s Speech” pulled an upset last weekend by winning the Producers Guild of America Awards top prize, whose recipient often goes to claim best picture at the Oscars.
The best-actress field shapes up as a two-woman race between Annette Bening for “The Kids Are All Right,” who won the Globe for actress in a musical or comedy, and Natalie Portman for “Black Swan,” who received the Globe for dramatic actress.
The supporting-actress Oscar could prove the most competitive among acting prizes. Melissa Leo won the Globe for “The Fighter,” but she faces strong challenges from that film’s co-star Amy Adams and 14-year-old newcomer Steinfeld.
The supporting-actor Oscar category includes a nomination for John Hawkes of “Winter’s Bone.” Hawkes, who was active in theater groups and movies while living in Austin from the late 1970s to the late ’80s, faces favorite Christian Bale for “The Fighter,” Jeremy Renner for “The Town,” Mark Ruffalo for “The Kids Are All Right” and Rush for “The King’s Speech.” (Hawkes was also in the Austin band Meat Joy in the ’80s.)
With its aristocrats, statesmen and perilous times, “The King’s Speech” is a throwback to the majestic, eye-filling costume pageants that dominated film awards in Hollywood’s earlier decades.
“The Social Network” is an immediate story, set not in palaces but college dorm rooms, cluttered start-up space and anonymous legal offices where Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) battles former associates over the proceeds of his invention.
David Fincher is the best-directing favorite for “The Social Network” after winning that prize at the Globes.
Joining Fincher among best-director picks are Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan”; Joel and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”; Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech”; and David O. Russell for “The Fighter.”
One notable snub was the omission of director Christopher Nolan for “Inception,” though he got a nod for original screenplay.
The top two contenders in the best actor category are Firth as King George VI, who’s trying to overcome his stuttering in “The King’s Speech,” and Eisenberg as the founder of Facebook in “The Social Network.”
Also nominated are Javier Bardem as a dying father in the Spanish-language drama “Biutiful,” which also is up for best foreign-language film; Bridges as boozy lawman Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit,” a role that earned John Wayne an Oscar for the 1969 adaptation of the Western novel; and James Franco in the real-life tale of a climber trapped in a crevasse after a boulder crushes his arm in “127 Hours.”
Bening was nominated for best actress as a lesbian mom whose family is thrown into turmoil after her teenage children seek out their sperm-donor father in “The Kids Are All Right.” Portman was nominated as a ballerina losing her grip on reality in “Black Swan.”
Other best-actress nominees are Nicole Kidman as a grieving mother in “Rabbit Hole”; Jennifer Lawrence as a teen trying to find her missing father amid the Ozark Mountains’ criminal underbelly in “Winter’s Bone”; and Michelle Williams as a wife in a failing marriage in “Blue Valentine.”
With additional material from The Associated Press
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By Reed
January 25, 2011 2:56 PM | Link to this
How was Hailee Steinfeld a supporting actress? she was the main character!