Snap Judgement: Oscar Noms 2010

As exciting for me as finding out who's playing in the Superbowl, heck, more exciting to me than the actual Superbowl is hearing who the nominees are for this year's Academy Awards. I don't know why it means so much to me, it's just another award show, but I feel the other awards just lead up to this one and this is the granddaddy mother of all award shows, the one every other award show aspires to be.

This morning the 2010 nominees were released with the much discussed new 10 Best Picture contenders, which IMO allowed deserving pictures a chance, even though the ones who ended up getting in with the top 5 will never win, but in the case of "Up" especially, it's so nice to get nominated as the second animated movie EVER to do so. ("Beauty and the Beast" was the first and only up until this point. Hard to believe.)

Russell is so excited to be nominated! As am I.

And I'm better off with seeing all the nominees this year than I thought I would be. And despite me scoffing repeatedly at the joke that I knew as "The Blind Side," I guess I just might have to watch it now. It's still playing in theaters despite being released at Thanksgiving. For reals I never saw that one coming.

So here's some nominees in categories I care about with some thoughts:

Best Picture

• "Avatar"
• "The Hurt Locker"
• "Up in the Air"
• "Precious"
• "Inglourious Basterds"
• "An Education"
• "District 9"
• "Up"
• "The Blind Side"
• "A Serious Man"

I'm so excited for "District 9" and "Up" here, two movies I thought never stood a shot though I thought were very deserving. And I'm doing good as I've seen 5/5 here, with easy access to three I haven't seen (Basterds, Serious Man, and Hurt Locker are on DVD now.) And there's that stupid "Blind Side."

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock ("The Blind Side")
• Meryl Streep ("Julie & Julia")
• Carey Mulligan ("An Education")
• Gabourey Sidibe ("Precious")
• Helen Mirren ("The Last Station")

Meryl Streep, please. I love me some good Sandra Bullock a la "The Proposal" or "Miss Congeniality" (as opposed to the too often bad Sandra Bullock) but Meryl Streep was delish as Julia Child. BON APPETIT THIS MERYL! MUAH.

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart")
• George Clooney ("Up in the Air")
• Colin Firth ("A Single Man")
• Morgan Freeman ("Invictus")
• Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker")

I've only seen Freeman and Clooney here so I'll hold off on judgement. "Crazy Heart" and "Single Man" open up soon here so I'll be seeing those easy and plan to see "Hurt Locker" ASAP too.

Best Supporting Actress

• Mo'Nique ("Precious")
• Vera Farmiga ("Up in the Air")
• Anna Kendrick ("Up in the Air")
• Penelope Cruz ("Nine")
• Maggie Gyllenhaal ("Crazy Heart")

Very excited for "Nine" to get a big nomination here, but this one goes to MoMo. Le duh.

Best Supporting Actor

• Christoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds")
• Woody Harrelson ("The Messenger")
• Stanley Tucci ("The Lovely Bones")
• Matt Damon ("Invictus")
• Christopher Plummer ("The Last Station")

I need to get me some Best Supporting Actors since I've only seen Damon and he doesn't stand a chance.

Best Director

• Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker")
• James Cameron ("Avatar")
• Jason Reitman ("Up in the Air")
• Quentin Tarantino ("Inglourious Basterds")
• Lee Daniels ("Precious")

Either Cameron or Bigelow. I loved "Avatar" and really still love "Titanic" but James Cameron just irks me in general. Creeper? Yes.

Best Animated Feature Film

• "Coraline"
• "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
• "The Princess and the Frog"
• "The Secret of Kells"
• "Up"

This is "Up's" best chance to win, but I'm so excited for "Princess and the Frog." Just glad to see classic Disney is back AND good.

I promise I care about the rest, and will be back to comment later when I see more of them, but I wanted to give a rundown of the ones I care about the mostest. Hooray for Oscars! One month to do my best to see them all.