Oscar nominations: Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the way with 9 nominations each

Posted by: Paul Little  •  February 2, 2010 @ 7:38pm

For the first time in over half a century, there are ten films nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Many thought that this may dilute the prestigious category, while others hoped it would open up the door to certain types of films that deserved nominations but are often ignored by the Oscars. Now that the nominees have been announced, it probably leans more to honouring deserving films that would normally be ignored, with dark sci-fi film District 9 and brilliant Pixar film Up scoring Best Picture noms.

Avatar and The Hurt Locker are the big winners as far as nominations go, each receiving nine, while Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds picked up eight nominations and Up in the Air and Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire each garnered six. Not surprisingly, the directors of the five films leading the nominations are going head to head in the Best Director category (and likely would've been the five films vying for Best Picture had they not expanded that category).

There aren't a lot of surprises amongst this year's nominees, though I was very happy to see the mostly-overlooked In the Loop nominated for Adapted Screenplay. Star Trek only getting a few tech nominations was also a bit disappointing, but it's certainly not surprising. One thing that should be noted is that for only the second time since its inception, the Best Animated Feature category has five nominees (meaning there were at least 16 qualifying films for the category). This year was a very strong year for animation, to the point where there were several films that probably could've been nominated that were left out.

Anyway, below is the complete list of nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards. The awards ceremony take place Sunday, March 7th @ 8E/5P on ABC and CTV, and of course keep visiting ShowbizMonkeys.com, as we will once again provide coverage from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood leading up to and following the Oscars.

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

Best Actor

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

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren in The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan in An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
• Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Best Supporting Actor

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

Best Supporting Actress

• Penélope Cruz in Nine
• Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
• Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
• Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
• Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Best Director

• James Cameron for Avatar
• Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
• Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds
• Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
• Jason Reitman for Up in the Air

Best Screenplay (Adapted)

• District 9 (Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell)
• An Education (Nick Hornby)
• In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, & Tony Roche)
• Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (Geoffrey Fletcher)
• Up in the Air (Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner)

Best Screenplay (Original)

• The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
• Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
• The Messenger (Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman)
• A Serious Man (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
• Up (Bob Peterson & Pete Docter)

Best Animated Feature

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

Best Foreign Feature

• Ajami (Israel)
• El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
• Un Prophète (France)
• The White Ribbon (Germany)

Best Original Score

• Avatar (James Horner)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (Alexandre Desplat)
• The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders)
• Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)
• Up (Michael Giacchino)

Best Original Song

• "Almost There" from The Princess and the Frog" (Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman)
• "Down in New Orleans" from The Princess and the Frog" (Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman)
• "Loin de Paname" from Paris 36" (Music by Reinhardt Wagner, Lyrics by Frank Thomas)
• "Take It All" from Nine" (Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston)
• "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" from Crazy Heart (Music and Lyrics by Ryan Bingham & T Bone Burnett)

Best Documentary Feature

• Burma VJ
• The Cove
• Food, Inc.
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
• Which Way Home

Best Documentary Short

• China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
• Music by Prudence
• Rabbit à la Berlin

Best Animated Short

• French Roast
• Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
• The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
• Logorama
• A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Live-Action Short

• The Door
• Instead of Abracadabra
• Kavi
• Miracle Fish
• The New Tenants

Best Cinematography

• Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)
• The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)
• Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)
• The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

Best Editing

• Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua & James Cameron)
• District 9 (Julian Clarke)
• The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski & Chris Innis)
• Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)
• Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (Joe Klotz)

Best Art Direction

• Avatar (Art Direction: Rick Carter & Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair)
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Art Direction: Dave Warren & Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith)
• Nine (Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim)
• Sherlock Holmes (Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer)
• The Young Victoria (Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray)

Best Costume Design

• Bright Star (Janet Patterson)
• Coco before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)
• Nine (Colleen Atwood)
• The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

Best Makeup

• Il Divo (Aldo Signoretti & Vittorio Sodano)
• Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall & Joel Harlow)
• The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon & Jenny Shircore)

Best Sound Editing

• Avatar (Christopher Boyes & Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
• The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson)
• Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)
• Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger & Alan Rankin)
• Up (Michael Silvers & Tom Myers)

Best Sound Mixing

• Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson & Tony Johnson)
• The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson & Ray Beckett)
• Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti & Mark Ulano)
• Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson & Peter J. Devlin)
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers & Geoffrey Patterson)

Best Visual Effects

• Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham & Andrew R. Jones)
• District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros & Matt Aitken)
• Star Trek (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh & Burt Dalton)

Tags: Oscars, Academy Awards, awards shows, nominations, Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Up in the Air, Precious, Up

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Paul Little is the founder and Managing Editor of ShowbizMonkeys.com. When not interviewing his favourite musicians and comedians, he can also be found putting on and promoting music and comedy events with The Purple Room in Winnipeg, or co-producing the live comedy game shows Pants on Fire and The Great Patio Showdown. (@comedygeek)