The Academy Awards didn’t do much to surprise us this year. All the acting categories were won by the expected nominees, and The King’s Speech took home the Best Picture prize. The royal biopic also picked up Best Actor for Colin Firth, Best Director for Tom Hooper, and Best Original Screenplay for David Seidler.

Inception tied The King’s Speech for the most awards with a whopping four statuettes, winning Cinematography, Visual Effects, and both Sound prizes. The Social Network followed with three wins: Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, and Original Score.

The biggest eyebrow raise, in terms of awards, came when Tom Hooper grabbed the Best Director trophy. Although going in it appeared to be a toss-up between him and David Fincher (The Social Network’s director), I think a lot of people expected Fincher to win on the grounds that he is a much more familiar face around Hollywood. Hooper’s win seems to reinforce the correlation between Best Picture and Best Director winners, as well as between DGA and Oscar winners.

One of the biggest disappointments of the night was Inside Job’s victory over Exit Through the Gift Shop for Documentary Feature – not because Inside Job is undeserving of the award, but because I really wanted to see notoriously secretive graffiti artist Banksy accept an Oscar.

All in all the awards ceremony seemed to be a battle between the older generation and the younger generation. Case in point: The Social Network vs. The King’s Speech – Facebook vs. British Royalty. This battle was also nicely represented by 94 year old Kirk Douglas fighting over his cane with the young guy staged as his assistant.  Likewise, 29 year old Natalie Portman (Black Swan) beat out 52 year old Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) for Best Actress.

On the surface it seemed like the Academy was going for younger, cooler feel, having fresh-faced Anne Hathaway and James Franco host, and presenting goofy videos like the autotuned sound bites from Toy Story 3, Eclipse, The Social Network, and Harry Potter.  Ultimately, however, the older side won out, with the traditional feel-gooder, The King’s Speech, walking away with top honors, and Randy Newman winning his second Oscar for Best Original Song after a mind-boggling twenty nominations over his career.

While I enjoyed the new face of the Oscars (following James Franco’s twitter feed over the course of the evening was highly entertaining), I hope its classy, old school vibe never dissipates completely. The tributes to Bob Hope, Gone With the Wind, and Lena Horne, were all very nice. Especially compared to Melissa Leo’s wonderfully uncensored acceptance speech.

You can see a list of all the winners and nominees here.

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The King’s Speech reigned over the 83rd Academy Awards with wins for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay. As expected Natalie Portman picked up Best Actress for her role in Black Swan and Batman is now played by Academy Award Winner Christian Bale.

Alice in Wonderland picked up the gongs Costume and Art Design, while Inception was earned itself Cinematography, Sound and Visual Effects.

You find the full list of winners (underlined) below:

PICTURE:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

DIRECTOR:
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
David Fincher – The Social Network
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
Joel & Ethan Coen – True Grit
David O. Russell – The Fighter

ACTOR:
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours

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

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Mike Leigh – Another Year
Scott Silver & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson – The Fighter
Christopher Nolan – Inception
Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg – The Kids Are All Right
David Seidler – The King’s Speech

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy – 127 Hours
Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network
Michael Arndt – Toy Story 3
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – True Grit
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini – Winter’s Bone

ANIMATED FEATURE:
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Algeria)

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Matthew Libatique – Black Swan
Wally Pfister – Inception
Danny Cohen – The King’s Speech
Jeff Cronenweth – The Social Network
Roger Deakins – True Grit

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job – Charles Ferguson
Restrepo
Waste Land

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More – Karen Goodman & Kirk Simon
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

ANIMATED SHORT:
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing – Andrew Ruhemann & Shaun Tan
Madagascar, a Journey Diary

LIVE-ACTION SHORT:
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love – Luke Matheny
Na Wewe
Wish 143

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

ART DIRECTION:
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

COSTUME DESIGN:
Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

MAKEUP:
Barney’s Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman

FILM EDITING:
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

SOUND MIXING:
Inception
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

SOUND EDITING:
Inception
Toy Story 3
Tron Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

ORIGINAL SCORE:
John Powell – How to Train Your Dragon
Hans Zimmer – Inception
Alexandre Desplat – The King’s Speech
A.R. Rahman – 127 Hours
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – The Social Network

ORIGINAL SONG:
“Coming Home” from Country Strong
“I See the Light” from Tangled
“If I Rise” from 127 Hours
“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 by Randy Newman

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
Francis Ford Coppola

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The Academy Awards are less than a week away and all the other major awards shows have made their opinions known; it is time for final predictions to be made. Here is my mildly self-indulgent Oscar predictions list.

Best Picture:
Let’s start with the big one. A month ago I would have said (and I believe I did say) that The Social Network had this one in the bag. I was wrong. The Facebook film has lost most of its Best Picture buzz in the last few weeks and The King’s Speech has taken over top spot, crushing the competition at the BAFTAs last week. With any luck this momentum shift hasn’t come too late and The King’s Speech will take home the prize. It all depends on how many stubborn Academy voters are still clinging to The Social Network’s bandwagon.  If it were up to me Inception would reign victorious, with Black Swan and Toy Story 3 as the other top contenders. Unfortunately for me (and Christopher Nolan) the Academy didn’t ask for my opinion.

Official Prediction: The King’s Speech

Best Documentary Feature:
I’ll be honest – I haven’t seen all the documentary nominees and it’s not a category that develops a lot of discussion. This year there just isn’t a Bowling for Columbine or March of the Penguins to create huge buzz. However, based on what I’ve seen so far this awards season, only one of the nominees has been a regular presence: Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Official Prediction: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Best Foreign Language Film:
Like the documentary category, there hasn’t been a huge Foreign Language standout either.  Biutiful probably has the best shot, as it has consistently been nominated this season. Also, it is the only nominee with a nomination in another category (Javier Bardem’s Best Actor nom), which will likely give it more credit in the eyes of Academy voters. Still, I won’t be surprised of the Canadian drama, Incendies, wins instead.

Official Prediction: Biutiful

Best Supporting Actor:
Up until the BAFTAs Christian Bale had won almost every single Supporting Actor trophy he could find for his role in The Fighter. And for good reason. Bale is well-known for his astonishing physical transformations (see The Machinist), and The Fighter is no exception. Any trace of Bruce Wayne is gone and Bale’s acting totally immerses you in the character of Dickie Ecklund. However, Geoffrey Rush, who pulled off a phenomenal performance in The King’s Speech has been a consistent nominee this season, and was finally rewarded at the BAFTAs. His win may be partly attributed to the BAFTA’s favoritism toward British films and the strong momentum The King’s Speech has been gaining. Whatever the reason, Rush’s win makes him a viable contender for the statuette. The other three nominees, while all putting forth incredible performances, don’t have the buzz or the critical reception surrounding them to garner a victory.

Official Prediction: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Best Supporting Actress:
This category has been a delightfully unpredictable crapshoot this year. No single nominee has stood out above the pack. The momentum of The King’s Speech might propel Helena Bonham Carter toward a win, especially after her BAFTA victory, although I hope that won’t be the case.  Jacki Weaver (The Animal Kingdom) had some decent buzz early in the awards season, but it has mostly faded away. Hailee Steinfeld, the True Grit darling, has a decent shot since the Academy loves the Coen brothers and has a history of favoring young actresses in this category. Where we are mostly likely to see a win, however, is from The Fighter duo – Melissa Leo and Amy Adams. Both of them have been ubiquitous this year (minus a couple notable snubs – I’m looking at you BAFTAs) and the fact that there are two nominations from the same movie adds clout to their chances. Melissa Leo has been the stronger nominee, winning a Golden Globe and a number of other awards, so I’m placing my bets on her.

Official Prediction: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Best Animated Feature:
Toy Story 3, hands down. I’ll be stunned and horrified if anything else wins. I liked How To Train Your Dragon and The Illusionist has a cool retro thing going on, but they just don’t compare to Pixar’s latest gem. Don’t believe me? The fact that it’s the only nominee in this category that also has a Best picture nomination should convince you.

Official Prediction: Toy Story 3

Best Adapted Screenplay:
While The Social Network has been losing some serious Best Picture momentum, Aaron Sorkin has not lost any for his script. He has won at the WGAs, the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, the Scripters, and too many more to mention. Even in awards where there is only one screenplay prize (like the Globes, where they don’t split original and adapted screenplays), Sorkin has won.

Official Prediction: Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

Best Original Screenplay:
The only reason any of these nominees has a chance is because The Social Network is in the other category. That being said, the battle is likely between David Seidler (The King’s Speech) and Christopher Nolan (Inception). Nolan is in contention purely due to his WGA win – the WGA’s strict eligibility restrictions prevented Seidler from being nominated, which left the field wide open for Nolan to step in. The fact is, however, that Seidler has the upper hand at the Oscars thanks to his huge number of other wins.

Official Prediction: David Seidler (The King’s Speech)

Best Actor:
This one shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Colin Firth has been cleaning up this category right from the beginning. His performance as King George VI in The King’s Speech is about as close to flawless as you’re going to find. In another year we might have seen a younger actor like James Franco (127 Hours) or Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) take home the top prize. Javier Bardem (Biutiful) and Jeff Bridges (True Grit) have both received honors recently, so the Academy shouldn’t feel obligated to snub Firth in order to honor them.

Official Prediction: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

Best Actress:
Earlier on this season this was actually a tight race. Both Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan) came strong out of the gate. Since then, however, Bening has all but disappeared off the radar and Portman has continued to soar. I like to think that this is because people have good taste. The other three nominees shouldn’t pose much of a threat. The only way I can see Natalie Portman losing is if a whole bunch of Academy voters decide Annette Bening is too long overdue for a win.

Official Prediction: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Director:
This one might be a bit of a heads or tails call. Personally, I’d scrap all five nominees and hand the award to Christopher Nolan (Inception). Unfortunately, the Academy won’t allow me to do that. Trust me, I asked. The Best Director race looks like it has come down to Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) and David Fincher (The Social Network), which is more or less a reflection of the Best Picture race. The Academy has a long history of giving Best Director and Best Picture to the same movie. In fact, in the last 30 years, the Best Picture has won Best Director 24 times. Similarly, the Directors Guild of America award has been nearly perfect in predicting the Best Director Oscar, only missing the mark six times since its inception over six decades ago. In light of the fact that The King’s Speech is the Best Picture frontrunner and Tom Hooper won the DGA award, it would seem that he is the one to beat. But Fincher has continued to snag directing awards even when The Social Network loses the Best Picture category (ie. at the BAFTAs).  Fincher also has the “long overdue” card in his hand, having directed films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fight Club, and Se7en, whereas before The King’s Speech Hooper was almost exclusively a TV director. It’ll be close, but I expect Fincher will end up getting love from ol’ Oscar.

Official Prediction: David Fincher (The Social Network)

All of those other minor/technical awards:
I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’m an expert on sound editing or sound mixing (or even really understand the difference between the two) or any of the other minor/technical awards. I expect that Inception will walk away with a number of them (the rotating hallway scene alone should give it the Visual Effects award) and Alice in Wonderland is looking good for the Costume Design statuette. The Social Network’s musical score (by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) looks to be the front runner in that category, and my makeup artist mother says that Barney’s Version should nab the makeup award.

The 83rd Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 27 and will be hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway. You can see all the nominees here and feel free to make your own predictions in the comments section below!

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Sequel after sequel, adaptations and for once (in a long time) the worldwide top 10 matched the North American top 10. By matched I mean the same 10 movies that were there are here, the difference is in their order as you will see after the break.

10. How to Train Your Dragon $494.9 million

Just $1.7 million made the difference between this and Clash of the Titans. In the end we can say quality triumphed.

9. Despicable Me $527.8 million

What more can I say that wasn’t already said here, impressive, impressive and impressive again. $69 million budget, $527.8 million worldwide box office, now that’s what I call return on investment.

8. Tangled $522.3 million – projected to finish with over $550 million

$194 million in North America was impressive but to get $328 million more from around the world is really something and this is still going strong in many countries. Sure, the reported budget is somewhere around $260 million, making this by far the most expensive animated flick ever, but as I mentioned some time ago, that cost also includes development of previous versions of Rapunzel, all ultimately canned. Tangled managed to not only pay for itself but also those projects, all the more amazing.

7. Iron Man 2 $622.1 million

Less amazing was Iron Man 2 with only a slightly higher number then the $585.1 million that Iron man made worldwide back in 2008.

6. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse $693.5 million

While this made a bit more in North America, it actually made less around the world ($393 million versus $413.2 million) so it came short of the $709.8 million of The Twilight Saga: New Moon. This series might have hit the maximum it can ever expect to achieve. Breaking Dawn Part 1 in November this year can prove me right or wrong.

5. Shrek Forever After $750 million

While in the US Shrek is dropping with every new release, outside the thing actually grows (in money, not attendance, obviously). This 4th Shrek reached an all time series high of $511.2 million, more then twice as much as it did in North America. We might just see Shrek again after all, I mean who can say no to so much money.

4. Inception $823.6 million

We finally get to the big boys starting with Inception. Also not much more to say here so I will leave it to this, The Dark Knight made $468.5 million outside North America, Inception made $531 million. All in all this should be good news for The Dark Knight Rises, coming in 2012.

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 $948.3 million

The first Harry Potter made $974.7 million worldwide and the closest to that has been this one. Part 2 coming this summer should ultimate become (thanks in no small part to 3D) the highest grossing in the series.

2. Alice in Wonderland $1,024.3 million

Maybe we didn’t get another Avatar in2010 but what we got instead are 2 titles grossing over $1 billion worldwide, each. Alice in Wonderland was the first one and it was also the first 3D movie that came after Avatar, definitely no coincidence here.

1. Toy Story 3 $1,063.2 million

This is what happens when you have a highly anticipated movie that actually manages to meet expectations, this is the kind of movie that you just have to see regardless of age, skin color or religion. Yeah sure, if you start digging you notice that it is number 1 mostly thanks to the $415 million it has made in North America and that Alice in Wonderland with $690.1 million and Harry Potter 7 with $654.8 million made more internationally but Toy Story 3 is the highest grossing Pixar movie to date, both in North America and around the world and those two numbers put together add up to more then any other title this last year.

Note: I put a picture of Alice in Wonderland up there because Toy Story 3 already had its picture a week ago when I did the top 10 for North America, so it was only fair to give Alice a bit of credit also, after all it did make more money internationally.

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Now that nothing is moving up and down anymore and everything is finally in place we can take a final (we not really, you’ll see soon) look at 2010, more specifically the 10 highest grossing 2010 released movies in North America, after the break.

10. Tangled $193.4 million

What is that you say, a mistake? How can an animated Disney movie not made by Pixar be in a top 10, why you would have to go all the way to 1999 to see another such feat. Tarzan with $171 million was 6th that year. Well no mistakes here, Tangled is the hit Disney waited a decade to come.

9. How to Train Your Dragon $217.5 million

Ok, quick reminder here, action + animation – talking animals =  bad box office prospects. Well obviously since this is in 9th place you can guess we have right here the exception to that rule not to mention it got a frigging Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. DreamWorks are moving forward with a sequel scheduled for 2013.

8. Shrek Forever After $238.7 million

The final chapter in the Shrek saga is also the worst box office performer but all is good for DreamWorks because as one falls (Shrek), another will rise (Dragon). Now don’t get me wrong, $238 million is still a lot of money but coming from a series that peaked at $441.2 million in 2004 with Shrek 2, it looks like this ogre is starting to run on fumes.

7. Despicable Me $251.5 million

Ok, notice a trend going on here? Let me see, animated, animated, animated and animated, yeap, definitely something is going on here. Basically Despicable Me performed beyond even the most wild expectations and to make things even more impressive, this was the first animated feature for studio Illumination Entertainment. Best of all, it only cost $69 million (a fraction of the normal cost of this movies), obviously a sequel is already in production.

6. Inception $292.5 million

Hail to the king baby, Nolan somehow managed to do it again. This and Despicable Me are the only original works found in this top 10, everything else is either a sequel or adapted from something so give it up once again for Chris Nolan cause he really is the man. He had the guts to take his dream project and make it into a $200 million epic (props to Warner also because it takes a lot of confidence in a man to finance this kind of thing) without sacrificing nothing of his vision while also making it a huge commercial hit. Anyone else might have tried to dumb this down but not Nolan, nope, not Nolan.

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 $293.4 million

The 7th in the Harry Potter series exactly in line with what we have come to expect from this already historical box office performing franchise. Next summer the final chapter will go for the Potter record ($317.5 million) with the help of 3D.

4. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse $300.5 million

Ok, I have to hand it to the vampire soap opera, it finally managed to beat Harry Potter (but only in North America). Also in the tradition of Harry Potter the final chapter of this series will be split in 2 parts, first one coming in November.

3. Iron Man 2 $312.4 million

Don’t know about you guys but I was expecting more from this, at least more then what Iron Man made in 2008 ($318.4 million). I mean everything was in place but it just forgot to click. So, can the 3rd make more or is this the best we’ll ever see from Iron Man, The Avengers will tell us in 2012.

2. Alice in Wonderland $334.1 million

In 2005 Warner released Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to $206.4 million. Alice in Wonderland comes from the same Tim Burton – Johnny Depp collaboration this time with Disney behind it. A year ago I could not picture this making Charlie and the Chocolate Factory numbers and look at it now. But this is nothing, wait until you see the worldwide numbers.

1. Toy Story 3 $415 million

What a wonderful history this series has, Toy Story back in 1995 was the first feature film for Pixar and it made $191.7 million. I was 8 years old when I first saw it in a theater with my class, I remember like it was yesterday. Back then it was something to behold, unlike anything I had ever seen. Toy Story was the highest grossing movie of 1995. Forward to 1999 and Toy Story 2 is released to even more success, $245.8 million, enough for 3rd that year. 11 years later and a total of 15 years since Pixar started this series, Toy Story 3 is out finishing one of the most beautiful and loved stories of all time with the success it deserved. While it took Pixar 15 years to get back on top at the box office, they have always been number 1 when it comes to quality animation.

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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts displayed their unabashed favoritism toward British films this Sunday by showering The King’s Speech with seven awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Colin Firth. The biggest surprise is probably the fact that Tom Hooper did not grab the directing prize after his DGA win. Instead, he watched David Fincher (The Social Network) walk away with that one.

The other huge shocker was Christian Bale’s (The Fighter) Supporting Actor loss to Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech). Bale has swept almost every single Supporting Actor prize, big and small, this awards season, so it was unexpected to have him go home empty handed, especially this close to the Academy Awards. I truly hope it doesn’t hurt his chances at an Oscar win.

The King’s Speech also nabbed the Supporting Actress award for Helena Bonham Carter’s performance as Queen Elizabeth. It makes me wonder if the BAFTAs would have blindly given The King’s Speech the Best Actress prize too, had there been a nominee.

Most of the rest of the awards were predictable: Darren Aronofsky (director of Black Swan) accepted Natalie Portman’s Best Actress award (she’s super pregnant and didn’t attend the ceremony); Aaron Sorkin was honored for The Social Network’s Adapted Screenplay; Toy Story 3, of course, won Best Animated Film; and Inception was given three of those awards that nobody is very interested in (Sound, Production Design, and Special Visual Effects).

It’ll be interesting to see how much of an impact the BAFTAs have on the Academy Awards. You can see the full list of BAFTA nominees and winners here.

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Christopher Nolan and Aaron Sorkin were the big winners at Saturday night’s Writers Guild of America awards. Nolan grabbed the Original Screenplay prize, finally receiving recognition for his mind-bending Inception script. Sorkin added another Adapted Screenplay trophy to his wall for The Social Network.

These results have almost no bearing on Oscar buzz, however, as many of the top contenders were disqualified by the WGA’s strict eligibility requirements – Original Screenplay frontrunner David Seidler (The King’s Speech) for example.

The Social Network, which won this year’s USC Libraries Scripter award on Friday night, still has the best shot of winning Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards, but will face stiffer competition from the likes of Toy Story 3 and Winter’s Bone, which were ineligible for the WGAs.

Personally, I’d like to see upsets in both categories at the Oscars and have Inception and Toy Story 3 walk away with the statuettes.  Perhaps Nolan’s WGA win will propel him toward a win. One can hope.

Read similar posts to Inception and The Social Network get WGA love at Filmonic

The headline says it all with this one, folks. We have no idea what character he’ll be playing, but Inception star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is set to reunite with director Christopher Nolan (and co-star Tom Hardy, for that matter) in The Dark Knight Rises.

Deadline brings the report, claiming that the 29-year-old will be on board when Nolan begins filming this May. Gordon-Levitt is currently filming Rian Johnson’s Looper – one of my most anticipated films in a long time – and should be freed up for filming by Nolan’s start date.

There were early rumors of JGL playing The Riddler in the final entry of Nolan’s Batman trilogy, but those came and went without confirmation. This news seems a bit more finalized, although, again, we’re not sure what role he’s playing. Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway are co-starring as Bane and Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman) alongside Christian Bale, and it’s assumed the rest of the great supporting Bat-cast will return to this third installment as well. Expect more clarification on this story in the weeks to come.

What role should Gordon-Levitt play in The Dark Knight Rises?

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Nothing is set in stone. Those are words to live by when it comes to awards season predictions.  Early on it may have looked like The Social Network was going to steamroll the Academy Awards and walk away with Best Picture unchallenged. That would have been very boring. Thankfully The King’s Speech, which upset The Social Network by taking Best Picture at the Producers Guild Awards this past Saturday, is looking like a serious competitor. The Oscar nominations, which were released early this morning, only serve to reinforce that; The King’s Speech garnered twelve nominations, making it the most nominated film this year.

In second place is the Western remake True Grit with ten nominations.  While some may be surprised by this, seeing as the movie was completely snubbed by the Golden Globes and has only popped up sporadically this awards season, it shouldn’t be all that shocking. Joel and Ethan Coen are long-time Academy darlings.  In fact, they took the Best Director slot which many assumed would be given to Inception’s director/writer Christopher Nolan, which would have lined up with the Director’s Guild Award nominations.

It will be interesting to see just how much love the Coens’ movie ends up getting. It is entirely possible that Hailee Steinfeld will grab the Best Supporting Actress statuette for her role in True Grit, as the Academy has a long history of awarding young actresses in that category and there is no clear frontrunner this year.

While a few of the categories probably won’t offer any tension (Colin Firth, nominated for his role in The King’s Speech, should win Best Actor for example), there ought to be a few nail biters. Natalie Portman (Black Swan) is looking strong in the Best Actress category, but Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) may surprise everyone. This is Bening’s fourth nomination and Academy voters may feel she is long overdue for a win.

The real tension will come at the end of the ceremony, as it looks like we will have another Avatar/The Hurt Locker type showdown for Best Picture between The Social Network and The King’s Speech. While my pride may be hurt if the Facebook movie loses, for I predicted its win with much confidence a while ago, my sense of aesthetic would appreciate a win for The King’s Speech.

You can see a full list of the nominations here.

Based on true events, 127 Hours follows Aron Ralston (Franco), a dare-devil outdoorsman who gets trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone in the Utah mountains. As hours turn into days, Ralston embarks on a personal journey in which he relies on the memories of family and friends – as well as his own courage and ingenuity – to turn adversity into triumph.

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Academy voters have spoken and The King’s Speech leads the race with 12 nominations. True Grit received 10, with The Social Network and Inception tied for 8 nominations each. No love for Christopher Nolan in the directors category, though.

Full list of nominations below:

Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Best Actor
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
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
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel and Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network
Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
David O. Russell, The Fighter

Best Original Screenplay
Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Kids Are All Right

Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Best Foreign Film
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
In a Better World (Denmark)

Best Animated Film
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

The 2011 Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 27, 2011 and will be hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway.

Read similar posts to 83rd Annual Academy Award Nominations at Filmonic