As usual, there were a few surprises this morning as the 2011 Academy Award nominations were announced. The Fighter was set to take four acting nominations after Amy Adams and Melissa Leo received nominations for Best Supporting Actress. As expected, Christian Bale received a nom, but Mark Wahlberg was snubbed by the Academy, as well as Ryan Gosling for Blue Valentine, in favor of Javier Bardem (for Biutiful) and Jeff Bridges (for True Grit).
Christopher Nolan was edged out of a Best Director nom for Inception, opening up the possibility for The Fighter‘s David O. Russell to stage an upset.
Thankfully it wasn’t The Social Network‘s day, as was predicted. The most overrated picture of the year received eight nominations total.
The Academy handed 12 nominations to The King’s Speech and 10 to True Grit.
Major nominations after the jump.
BEST PICTURE
127 Hours Black Swan Inception The Fighter
The Kids are All Right The King’s Speech The Social Network Toy Story 3 True Grit Winter’s Bone
BEST DIRECTOR Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David O. Russell, The Fighter
Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
BEST ACTRESS Annette Bening, The Kids are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Christian Bale, The Fighter Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are Alright
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jackie Weaver, Animal Kingdom
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.