With the nominees for Best Picture expanded to ten and Christopher Nolan being considered as one of the more overdue directors for a nomination out there (like it or not!), I'm pretty sure this will figure in next year's race unless it is slammed by the critics. Nolan has been nominated before for Best Original Screenplay for Memento, but never for Director.

The film looks likely to receive strong technical support with its visuals and all (The Dark Knight got eight nominations in total afterall, despite the Picture/Director snubs). With its current release date and a strong marketing push by WB it looks like a bona fide box-office hit as well. As for the film's cast and crew, there're a lot of Oscar nominees as well:

Michael Caine - six nominations, two wins
Leonardo DiCaprio - three nominations
Ellen Page - one nomination
Marion Cotillard - one nomination, one win
Ken Watanabe - one nomination

Wally Pfister (Cinematography) - three nominations
Hans Zimmer (Score) - eight nominations
Lee Smith (Editing) - two nominations

There are also Oscar nominees in other tech departmebnts (like Visual Effects or Sound).

Looking at next year's schedule, there are seemingly no films like District 9 or Avatar on the horizon, so this one looks to take the big effects blockbuster spot.


Something around 10-12 nominations in total wouldn't surprise me.

I think so it will be a great movie but still the topic is a bit off for main stream Drama leachers that Academy people are and if it turns out to be action thriller I think so this one will be long forgotten before the next year's ceremony. Right now I am going with 0 nominations but time will tell

So long as it's really good and has the money to back that up (At least $200+ million), it should be able to make it in for Picture. Otherwise I see a District 9-like nomination count, with just Screenplay, Cinematography and maybe an Editing or Sound nomination.

Don't forget Visual Effects. Paris folding in on itself can't be easy.

This can result in Nolan's first Director nom, hopefully. Pfister's first win?

Yes. Because this makes sense.

What type of movie was TDK?

Magnus, I suppose Inception has the huge advantage of not being a comic book adaptation that is also a sequel.

We didn't have ten BP nominees back in 2002.
Spielberg was not considered overdue.
Minority Report had rather underwhelming box-office.

And this year we had amovie with prawn-aliens and exploding people nominated for BP.

More difficult, but assuming that it'll get Picture and a whole bunch of other nods (should get a lot of tech stuff and probably screenplay), I think Director will be just given along with the rest.

Yes, I think the whole race is a bit different. With the voters putting down TDK in the BP list they might have an easier time adding Nolan as Director as well.


Moreover, as I said, missing for TDK makes him seem just more overdue. And it not being a sequel helps.

This Nolan guy is a lot like (exactly the same as) that Fincher, so I expect that in the case this movie is his worst, he will receive a nomination.

At this point last year Nine looked like it was bound to get a lot of Oscar noms. It had all the right ingredients. We all saw how that one turned out. Inglorious Basterds was pronounced dead by many after Cannes. It managed to get 8 noms and I believe it has what it takes to upset the BP race.

I have absolutely no idea how Inception will turn out. It has all the right ingredients. But will they make for a right kind of an Oscar pie?

Alien³ is by far Fincher's worst (and terrible all around).

Inception will get nominated for at least one Oscar.

you know what I mean, fuckers.

Alien 3 is still better than Benjamin Button.

With 10 nominees, it's a wide open field. Avatar has 9 noms, without any acting or a screenplay nom. And it's considered as an Oscar movie. District 9 has a BP, Best Screenplay noms among others. Inception might not be a typical Oscar bait, but it's one of these modern ones.

It's not even better than Scary Movie 3.

Sure, if it's a very good film and lives up to the high expectations people have of Nolan and the A-list cast, it should figure into the awards season equation.

Scary Movie 3 is also better than Benjamin Button.

An article on the film

If you want to stay TOTALLY unspoiled, you probably shouldn't read that, but it has some vague, interesting details. At the very least, it sounds like a VERY major contender for Art Direction. I love Nolan's love for non-CGI trickery.

I think it is going to be completely hit or miss.

Nolans either going hit a massive grand slam or he's issue a misfire of epic proportions. Theres not much wiggle room.

I could see this being a "massive grand slam" or a visually amazing but emotionally hollow film. I'm willing to bet that Inception will not be a misfire in any way except, perhaps, financially.

I don't think Gyllenhaal was a weak element.

Because she wasn't given that much to work with. On the other hand, she was 20 times stronger than Holmes and being the weakest in a film like TDK is hardly a shame, heh.