New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Kim Hollis: When the Academy Awards nominations were announced on Tuesday, I was probably the least excited I’ve been in years. Usually, I can find about five movies to champion in any given year but in 2011, there are several movies that I like a lot, but none that made me feel like a Lost in Translation or The Royal Tenenbaums, or hell, even The Departed. With that said, even though it was hard to work up enthusiasm, that doesn’t mean I hadn’t followed the predictors to determine likely nominee scenarios. While there were very few surprises, there were some that were pretty significant, and not all of them were awesome.

Of course, like everyone else, I was blown away that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close snuck in for the Best Picture race. I guess that Tom Hanks still has some pull in the industry, and obviously Larry Crowne wasn’t getting anywhere near these awards.

The other Best Picture nominees were all expected with perhaps the exception of Tree of Life, but it would be easy enough to imagine that its passionate supporters would be solid enough to get it the 5% of first place votes it needed. I don’t even think there were any true snubs – some have mentioned The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but I understand why that was a tough pill for the Academy to swallow.

Was Demiàn Bechir a surprise for Best Actor? Sure, but I’d seen discussion of his candidacy in a couple of places (including our own Tom Houseman early in the season) and I was pleased to see that something so out of the mainstream came on for a small victory. I always had a nagging feeling that Michael Fassbender (hot though he is) would have problems securing a nomination due to the overt sexual focus of his film.

A lot of people were pretty stunned by the Best Animation nominees, but something to always keep in mind is that these movies are actually chosen by people from within the field, and that group might see Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Co. to be interlopers amongst their community. A Cat in Paris had gotten decent critical attention earlier in the year, enough that I had it on my radar as a film I wanted to see (it puts me in mind of To Catch a Thief). Obviously, no one was going to predict Chico & Rita, but with five nominees this year, the people behind the nominations could be more capricious than usual.

I think I’m most excited about the nominations for Midnight in Paris, which is a movie I enjoyed a great deal but wouldn’t have thought would have been as big a player as it has been back when it was released in May. Yes, it’s Woody Allen’s biggest movie ever, but usually he gets screenplay nominations and nothing else these days. Also, I know a lot of people are knocking it, but I was really pleased to see Jonah Hill get recognized for Best Supporting Actor. He can annoy the hell out of me when he’s the comedic lead, but he was perfectly utilized in Moneyball, showing a range I wouldn’t have believed he had until I witnessed it with my own eyes.

Now, like many others, I’ll be working to catch up on stuff that I would probably otherwise never have considered watching (Albert Nobbs? Oh, come on!) but I fear that I’ll still never find that one movie that makes my heart sing.

As far as early predictions, I always hate to do this thing so early because you almost always see the tide change between the week of nominations and the actual day of the awards, but I feel like The Artist is pretty certainly the film to beat for Best Picture. Best Actor probably goes to Juan Dujardin, though I think George Clooney can never be dismissed. Meryl Streep seems to have Best Actress locked up, while Christopher Plummer seems to be headed for a win in Best Supporting Actor. I think the only true "lock" in any Supporting category is Octavia Spencer for Supporting Actress.

Things are muddier from here, but I'm going to guess Marty Scorsese gets another award this year for directing, while Woody Allen takes it for Best Original Screenplay. Alexander Payne and Co. win for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Animated goes to Rango.

Continued:       1       2       3       4