And The Nominees Are...

Here they are, the 2010 Academy Award nominees - my thoughts are below

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Geroge Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Actor in a Supporting Role
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds

Actress in a Leading Role
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

Actress in a Supporting Role
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

Directing
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious: based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
District 9 - Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
An Education -Nick Hornby
In the Loop - Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air - Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger - Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
A Serious Man - Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Up - Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Animated Feature
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Foreign Language Film
Ajami (Israel)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophete (France)
El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

Feature Documentary
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Avant Chanel
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Make-Up
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

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

Original Song
"Almost There" - The Princess and the Frog
"Down in New Orleans" - The Princess and the Frog
"Loin de Paname" - Paris 36
"Take It All" - Nine
"The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" - Crazy Heart

Sound Mixing
Avatar
Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Sound Editing
Avatar
Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Documentary Short
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

Animated Short
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

Live Action Short
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Totals:
Avatar, The Hurt Locker - 9
Inglorious Basterds - 8
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Up in the Air - 6
Up - 5
District 9, Nine, Star Trek - 4

A couple of surprises - for me at least:

• The exclusion of Star Trek and The Hangover from Best Picture and the inclusion of The Blind Side and A Serious Man. I thought for sure one of those two would make it in; both are crowd pleasers, made serious cash at the box office, and were (for the most part) embraced by critics.
• Very disappointed (500) Days of Summer didn't show up in original screenplay category, but great to see In the Loop.
• The Avatar love wasn't as strong as some suspected, as evidenced with it's 9 nominations. It missed out on costumes, screenplay and song. For the first time in a long time, there really is a race for Best Picture, between Avatar and The Hurt Locker. As of right now, I'm going to give the edge to The Hurt Locker, it's 9 nominations say a lot (it got a nomination for original score!), and it's clearly embraced by all branches of the Academy - most importantly the writers and actors.
• I was thrilled for Jeremy Renner's nomination - I was watching them via Today on NBC this morning and he and Anthony Mackie were on the show about to be interviewed, and it was great to see his reaction. I watched The Hurt Locker again last night and was captivated all over again. I'm serious, if you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and watch it. Tonight.
• Sandra Bullock has the perfect storm of buzz right now to catapult her to the winners circle: a long career in Hollywood, support from her peers (SAG award), and the The Blind Side has made a ton of money and is an audience pleaser. The nomination for Best Picture has pretty much sealed the deal.
• No major surprises in the acting categories except Supporting Actress - Maggie Gyllenhaal in favor of Julianne Moore and Penelope Cruz managed to sneak in for Nine (although if anyone should have been nominated from Nine, it should have been Marion Cotillard).

Everything else was pretty much status quo. I'm going to see The Blind Side tomorrow, and The Last Station opens at Kendall this weekend. If I had to guess right now, I'd say The Hurt Locker gets Best Picture and Director - it has all of the noms that a film needs to take it all; Picture, Director, Writing, Actor/Actress and Editing. Up in the Air and Precious have those as well, but they're second tier. The real dark-horse? Inglorious Basterds.

What are your thoughts readers?