The Globes, The SAGS and every other award ceremony seemingly behind us (BAFTAs being the obvious exception) all eyes are now focused on March 7th when the Academy Awards will bestow their golden men on the best and the brightest in movies today.
This morning at an ungodly hour in Hollywood the nominations were announced for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards and as usual my pick of who/what I think should win and not who is likely to win is represented by a *.
BEST PICTURE:
Avatar*
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
DIRECTING:
Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
James Cameron - Avatar*
Lee Daniels - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:
Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart*
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
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
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Matt Damon - Invictus
Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds*
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*
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Neill Blomkamp - District 9
Nick Hornby - An Education*
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche - In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds*
Oren Moverman and - The Messenger
Joel and Ethan Coen - A Serious Man
Pete Docter and Bob Peterson - Up
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Ajami - Israel
El Secreto de sus Ojos - Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow - Peru
Une Prophéte - France*
The White Ribbon - Germany
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox*
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of the Kells
Up
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Maurio Fiore - Avatar*
Bruno Delbonnel - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Barry Ackroyd - The Hurt Locker
Robert Richardson - Inglourious Basterds
Christian Berger - The White Ribbon
FILM EDITING:
Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron - Avatar
Julian Clarke - District 9
Bob Murawski and Chris Innis - The Hurt Locker*
Sally Menke - Inglourious Basterds
Joe Klotz - Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Its music, it's film, it's all very groovy really and I won't be there ... damn. Ah well such is the life of an arm chair blogger who has to pay the bills. 'Follow your dreams!' I hear you cry. Well that's all well and good but mortgages are what mortgages are (and they ain't pretty here in the Southwest right now!). So while I won't be in Austin between March 12th and March 21st I highly recommend you try to get there and check out some pretty decent films. 
The Globes, The SAGS and every other award ceremony seemingly behind us (BAFTAs being the obvious exception) all eyes are now focused on March 7th when the Academy Awards will bestow their golden men on the best and the brightest in movies today.
It will be interesting to see what the public appetite is like for another round of celluloid Wall Street shenanigans Oliver Stone style. After the recent rounds of revoltingly OTT bonuses given to executives while the rest of the country suffers you would be forgiven if you wanted to give this follow up to the 1987 original a wide berth.
Well he's done it. James Cameron is King of the (box office) World once again. Empire reports today that with yesterdays earnings estimated at around $15m our blue skinned friends we know as the Na'vi are now the stars of the most successful motion picture of all time. Titanic made $1.84 billion in box office receipts and Avatar is about to sail on by ensuring it's place in movie history for ticket sales amongst other cinematic firsts. 
