Post-nomination thoughts & reactions

Well, I did pretty decent this year. Out of 106 total predictions, I nailed 80 of them right on the nose, and if you include my alternate choices, I hit a whopping 99/106!!! If I can't be proud of myself for that, then I don't know what I can be.

A couple of quick thoughts...

1. WHAT THE HELL, ACADEMY!!!!!!!!!!! What in the world does Christopher Nolan have to do to earn a freaking Best Director nomination! The snub for The Dark Knight was bad enough, but to do it again, for a film that is widely regarded as one of the best of the year, and a true Director's Film, is absolutely unforgiveable! Mr. Nolan, I'm sorry the directors are apparently blind. The screenplay nomination is a small consolation, but still, come on guys!!!!

2. With all the love that I predicted (correctly) for 127 Hours, I guess I should've put it in the Best Picture list after all. But it's all good. At least I kept in Winter's Bone, which a lot of people dropped off to make room. And speaking of Winter's Bone...

3. YAY for John Hawkes! His performance truly was the standout of the film for me, and I was very happy to hear his name called out this morning. He deserves it.

4. Surprise, surprise for Jacki Weaver! Well, not really a surprise, considering I had her as an alternate choice. Sad that it came at the expense of Mila Kunis, but even with the 5 nominations it got, the Academy just didn't go for Black Swan the way a lot of people, including me, thought they would.

5. I can't be too upset about the misses in Sound Editing, considering there is always very little to go on in that particular race. Also was difficult this year, since many times the 2 sound categories match very closely, and this year only Inception and True Grit found a home in both.

6. I weep for Scott Pilgrim. I wanted it to happen. I knew it wouldn't happen, but I wanted it to happen.

7. Makeup category was a complete shutout for me! Ouch! I said it beforehand, I had a gut feeling that both Barney's Version and The Wolfman would make it in, but ended up predicting neither. And where did The Way Back come from??? Deserving nod, but surprised to see it show up nonetheless.

8. I am loving the nomination for How to Train Your Dragon for Original Score. It might be my favorite of the year, or if not definitely one of them. That nod actually made me yell out a "hell yeah".

9. So the Academy really hated Burlesque as much as everyone else. Not even a single song nomination. They went with 4 songs this year, 3 of which I predicted correctly, and the other was one of my backup choices, so I'm good there.

10. 4/5 in Foreign Language is always passable in my book. Can't believe they actually went for Dogtooth! Great nod!

11. The Documentary Feature category didn't hurt me too bad, 3/5. But, where in the world is Waiting for Superman. Widely considered to be one of the front-runners in this race, and it gets snubbed not only here, but in the Best Song category too. Surprise, and ouch!!!