82nd Academy Awards Nominations

The Shrine in 1988 – photo: Alan Light

Digital News Report – Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will be hosting the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony on March 7, 2010. This year there will be 10 nominations for Best Picture, not the traditional five. This is the first time since 1943 that there have not been 5 nominations for Best Picture.

The first awards ceremony was held on Thursday, May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood. At that time they honored the best film achievements for 1927 and 1928. Actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. deMille hosted the first ceremony.

This will be Baldwin’s first time hosting the awards while Martin hosted the 73rd and 75th ceremonies. Last year Hugh Jackman hosted the awards when Slumdog Millionaire took the best picture award.

The top selling film, “Avatar” and the war drama “Hurt Locker” tie in the number of nominations. Here is the list:

9 nominations: Avatar and The Hurt Locker
8 nominations: Inglourious Basterds
6 nominations: Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire and Up in the Air
5 nominations: Up
4 nominations: District 9, Nine and Star Trek
3 nominations: An Education, Crazy Heart, The Princess and the Frog and The Young Victoria
2 nominations: A Serious Man, The Blind Side, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Invictus, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, The Last Station, The Messenger, Sherlock Holmes and The White Ribbon

Not all of the awards were handed out that first year in 1929. In 1936 they began giving awards for best supporting actors and actresses. The best animated short film award began in 1931 but it wasn’t until 2001 that the Best Animated Feature award was given.

In 1943 they began giving awards for Best Documentary and five years later in 1948 they began awarding films for Best Costume Design. During the thirties they offered awards for Best Sound Mixing (1930), Best Live Action Short Film (1931), Best Original Score (1934), Best Original Song (1934), and Best Visual Effects (1939).

In the 40s they began offering awards for Best Writing – Original Screenplay (1940), Best Documentary Short Subject (1941), Best Documentary Feature (1943), Best Foreign Language Film (1947) and Best Costume Design (1948).

These awards have been given out since 1927: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Writing for an Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture Best Actor and Best Actress. In 1963 they began awarding films for Best Sound Editing and in 1981 for Best Makeup.

Here are some of the nominees for each category:

Best Picture

Avatar The Blind Side District 9 An Education The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds A Serious Man Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire Up Up in the Air

 

Best Director

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

 

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart as Bad Blake George Clooney – Up in the Air as Ryan Bingham Colin Firth – A Single Man as George Falconer Morgan Freeman – Invictus as Nelson Mandela Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker as Sgt. William James

 

Best Actress

Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side as Leigh Anne Tuohy Helen Mirren – The Last Station as Sofya Tolstoy Carey Mulligan – An Education as Jenny Miller Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire as Clarieece "Precious" Jones Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia as Julia Child

 

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon – Invictus as François Pienaar Woody Harrelson – The Messenger as Capt. Tony Stone Christopher Plummer – The Last Station as Leo Tolstoy Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones as George Harvey Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds as Col. Hans Landa

 

Best Supporting Actress

Penélope Cruz – Nine as Carla Albanese Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air as Alex Goran Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart as Jean Craddock Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air as Natalie Keener Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire as Mary Lee Johnston

 

Best Animated Feature

Coraline – Henry Selick Fantastic Mr. Fox – Wes Anderson The Princess and the Frog – Ron Clements and John Musker The Secret of Kells – Tomm Moore Up – Pete Docter

 

Best Foreign Language Film

Ajami (Israel) in Arabic and Hebrew – Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina) in Spanish – Juan José Campanella The Milk of Sorrow (Peru) in Spanish – Claudia Llosa A Prophet (France) in French – Jacques Audiard The White Ribbon (Germany) in German – Michael Haneke

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will have their ritual at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Expect to the see the winners march down the red carpet on the ABC network.

By: Jael Kirk