British monarchy drama, The King’s Speech, scooped an amazing 12 Oscar nominations for the 2011 Academy Awards. The film made it to top slots including Best Picture and acting honours for Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush, as well as a Best Director mention for Tom Hooper. Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit and Winter’s Bone are contenders for Best Picture. Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), David O. Russell (The Fighter), David Fincher (The Social Network) and Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit) are in the race for Best Director. A. R. Rahman has been nominated for the Best Original Score and Best Original Soundtrack for ‘127 Hours’.
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), James Franco (127 Hours), Javier Barden (Biutiful) and Jeff Bridges (True Grit) will compete against Colin Firth in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category. Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone), Natalie Portman (Black Swan) and Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine) will vie for the Best Actress In A Leading Role.
The award nominations were announced at a press conference in Los Angeles on January 18 by last year’s Best Supporting Actress winner, Mo’Nique, and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ president, Tom Sherak. The 83rd annual Academy Awards ceremony will take place on February 27 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, and will be hosted by Anne Hathaway and Oscar-nominee James Franco.
Some of the other nominees are:
Best Screenplay – Adapted: Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy (127 Hours), Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network), Michael Arndt (B), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (True Grit), Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini (Winter’s Bone).
Best Screenplay – Original: Mike Leigh (Another Year), Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (The Fighter), Christopher Nolan (Inception), Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg (The Kids Are All Right), David Seidler (The King’s Speech).
Best Foreign Language Film: Biutiful (Mexico), Dogtooth (Greece), In A Better World (Denmark), Incendies (Canada), Outside The Law (Algeria).
Best Animated Feature: How To Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist, Toy Story 3.
Best Documentary (Feature): Exit Through The Gift Shop, Gasland, Inside Job, Restrepo, Waste Land.
Best Cinematography: Black Swan, Inception, The King’s Speech, The Social Network, True Grit.
Best Original Score: How To Train Your Dragon – John Powell; Inception – Hans Zimmer; The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat; 127 Hours – A.R. Rahman; The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Best Original Song: Coming Home from ‘Country Strong’ – Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey; I See The Light from ‘Tangled’ – Alan Menken and Glenn Slater; If I Rise from ‘127 Hours’ – A.R. Rahman, Dido and Rollo Armstrong; We Belong Together from ‘Toy Story 3’ – Randy Newman.
