Come the morning this year's Oscar nominations are announced, which nominations are you excited/hoping for most? I s'pose this lends itself more to "could go either way" type contenders rather than the guarantees (The Social Network in Best Picture, Colin Firth in Best Actor, and so on).
Mine:
- Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) in Best Supporting Actress. Still my favorite female supporting performance of 2010. At times subtle, at times colorful and fercious, never less than fascinating. I know the film's profile is low, I know she's not a "name," etc., but she so deserves a nomation. It would be strange if she ended up with a Globe nomination, but not an Oscar nomination, considering the Hollywood Foreign Press' reputation (which they lived up to with the twin Johnny Depp nominations). I would be quite sad if she missed. She's so, so, so much more deserving than Helena Bonham Carter and Mila Kunis, and the wonderful Hailee Steinfeld should be in another category.
- David O. Russell (The Fighter) in Best Director. First, he's one of my favorite directors. He's never been nominated for an Oscar. In fact, none of his films have ever been nominated for any Oscar.
This will change very soon with The Fighter, of course, and I hope he is nominated himself. I would also love to see The Fighter show up in Best Cinematography.- Never Let Me Go in Best Original Score. I know the film proved divisive and is out of contention in most categories, but many people at Awards Daily are still predicting Rachel Portman's score to be nominated. She won in 1997 for Emma and has been nominated twice since (The Cider House Rules, Chocolat), so it seems fair to say she's an Oscar favorite.