Best Actor Nominations

Let's have a look at the Best Actor Nominations for the 2011 Oscars.

Colin Firth is the hot favourite for the Best Actor Oscar and has already won the Golden Globe for his role as the stuttering King George VI. He was aided by great performances from Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter and Guy Pearce, and that he does not look much like the late George VI does not seem to have dented his chances in the slightest.

Not many actors could have played Mark Zuckerberg and made the billionaire creator of Facebook appear so vulnerable and sympathetic. Jesse Eisenberg managed to incoorporate the intelligence and arrogance of Zuckerberg, greatly helped by Aaron Sorkin's script.

Jeff Bridges took over the role played by the late John Wayne in Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of True Grit. At times inaudible, Bridges portrays a grisly gunslinger who appears to care little for his or any other human life, but reveals himself to be a true hero as he attempts to help a young girl take revenge for her father's murder.

Much rested on James Franco's performance to carry off Danny Boyle's latest film, 127 Hours. Franco plays Aron Ralston, the rock climber who was stuck down a crevice with his arm trapped by a boulder and, after 127 hours, realised that to survive he would have to cut off the trapped arm. Ouch. He will be co-hosting the Awards Ceremony.

An unexpected nomination for Javier Bardem - the first Best Actor nomination for a Spanish actor - for his role in Mexican film, Biutiful. Bardem plays Uxbil, a man in apparent free fall walking through a valley of death. It is an unusual but strangely touching drama.

Check out the other Oscar nominations at www.Oscars-2011.com

The King's Speech

The King's Speech is bound to garner several nominations when the 2011 Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow at 13:30 GMT.

The film itself will win a nomination for Best Picture while Tom Hooper will doubtless win a nomination for best Director. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush will be nominated for Best Actor in Leading Role and Best Actor in a Supporting Role respectively. If the Academy member had any sense, Guy Pearce would also receive a nomination for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role award. But this is wishful thinking on my part.

Helena Bohham Carter will receive a nomination for Best Supporting Actress and the script will also gain a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. But how likely are they to win these various Academy Awards?

And which of these Oscars do they deserve?

Colin Firth is great as the stuttering George VI there's no denying and Geoffrey Rush is an excellent foil for the stuffy king-to-be. As I say, Guy Pearce more than holds his own in his scenes and should be considered.

Helena Bonham Carter is precious as the somewhat complex Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Elizabeth was not all sweetness and light but had to be portrayed as a good character despite some loftiness.

Bonham Carter got it spot on for me.

However, the film is not perfect. The cinematography is at times too try-hard and why they thought Beethoven's 7th symphony was the appropriate score to the climactic speech I'll perhaps never know - especially when it was used so much in the reasonably good sci-fi/drama/thriller Knowing starring Nicolas Cage. It's difficult to fault the script but it is not as good as The Fighter's screenplay...

But will I be right? Check out the nominations after 13:30 on 25th January 2011.

Oscars for The Fighter by David O. Russell?

The Fighter is one of those films that could sneak into the 2011 Oscars ceremony and creep out again with a handful of Academy Awards. I certainly expect Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson and Keith Dorrington to receive an oscar nomination for their script and David O Russell (what does the O stand for anyway?) for directing.

Christian Bale is also a certainty for a nomination as the crack addicted ex boxer who is consistently messing up his brother's boxing career by insisting he be the centre of attention all the time. It is reminiscent of his role in The Machinist. You spend the first half of the movie hoping he will get his comeuppance and the second half the movie hoping he will finally see the light and help his brother win.

Mark Wahlberg is also excellent as the younger brother in a very dysfunctional Irish American family (and believe, if you haven't seen it, you will also with nothing but pain on the daughters of the family).

It's hard to watch boxing scenes without thinking of Raging Bull and Rocky and this film certainly has elements of both in it. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Russell has also played with the boundaries between fiction and documentary formats, mixing the two together so you lose the distinction between the two... (though we are always being presented with a fiction film). You begin to really think you're watching HBO back in the 1990s and the Liverpudlian boxer with a non-Scouse accent really is the boxer, Neardy.

It's certainly worth watching it and it will certainly pick up half a dozen nominations. Enjoy    

Oscars 2011 - The Build Up

The New Year has only just begun but the build up to the 2011 Oscars has already begun. Studios tend to delay releasing films they believe have a good chance of garnering awards so that they are timed to release not long before the awards season. Hence, the hot favourites (see Oscar predictions) for the 83rd Academy Awards are only now hitting the screens in the UK.

The Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky and The King's Speech by Tom Hooper are probably the most likely to pick up the gong for Best Picture. Toy Story 3 by Lee Unkrich is in with a good outside chance. But can John Lasseter's Pixar really land the big one this year? They have of course won several Oscars for animations and animated short films. Inception by Christopher Nolan (you can see his short film Doodlebug by the way) is probably a little too complex despite being a beautifully crafted film with moments of pure magic!

After that, The Social Network by David Fincher, 127 Hours by Danny Boyle, The Way Back by Peter Weir, 

The Fighter by David O Russell, and The Kids Are All Right by Lisa Cholodenko lead the chasing pack. 

I feel that too many Brits have won (and even dominated) the Oscars over recent years and the academy will reward an American - probably Aronofsky (who was laughed out of Cannes with The Fountain if you recall).

To see if I'm right, check in regularly with oscars-2011.com