After this morning’s Oscar nominations were announced, Fandango.com ran a poll from readers to determine what the top snubs this year were. The results were:

1.       Top Oscar Snub: Christopher Nolan – Best Director, Inception (48%)

2.       Tangled – Best Animated Feature (9%)

3.       Mila Kunis – Best Supporting Actress, Black Swan (8%)

4.       Despicable Me – Best Animated Feature (6%)

5.       Ryan Gosling – Best Actor, Blue Valentine (6%)

6.       Waiting for Superman – Best Documentary (5%)

7.       Black Swan – Best Original Screenplay (5%)

8.       Andrew Garfield – Best Supporting Actor, The Social Network (5%)

9.       Julianne Moore – Best Actress, The Kids are All Right (4%)

10.   Inception– Best Editing (3%)

Seems like the Fandango fans are about right. Christopher Nolan (and Ben Affleck for that matter) were snubbed in the Best Director category. I have always felt like nominating the directors who created strong achievements in films. Often times this favors more sci-fi/epic directors–and Nolan has now directed two of these achievements (the other being “The Dark Knight”) and failed to receive a nomination.

I could generate a lot of flack for this–but is this not a superior effort than say, Tom Hooper? “The King’s Speech” is a front-runner for Best Picture, and is the front runner for Best Actor. But while the film was very well written, it was carried by the acting performances. Did Hooper really put forth a notable entrance into the annals of directing? I think not.

Often directors of well-received art films carried by their performances receive the nods for Best Picture. They win sometimes as well. But this year, Darren Aronofsky put together a great film in “Black Swan.” Ditto for “True Grit” and “The Social Network,” which were also truly guided by the hands of their directors. But “The Fighter,” and “The King’s Speech?” I don’t think they were achievements in directing.

Fans were pretty upset also that “Tangled” and “Despicable Me” didn’t receive nominations. I’ve never been especially keen on a category for “Best Animated Feature,” as the great films–“Beauty and The Beast,” “Up,” and “Toy Story 3” all receive nominations in the Best Picture category.

Mila Kunis deserved a nomination for Best Supporting Actress; it was her best work. Ditto for Andrew Garfield; they were both Oscar-worthy performances.

My longstanding belief that Julianne Moore should have been nominated along with Annette Benning is well-published. What isn’t is my love for Gosling’s performance in “Blue Valentine.” His co-star and cohort in the film, Michelle Williams, was also nominated. His lack of a nomination is sad; I likely would have voted him over Colin Firth as the best performance of the year.

About The Author

Jason Woods is a Blast staff writer

4 Responses

  1. Bob Smith

    The academy members are supid for not nominating Nolan. The movie “Inception” was rated top 10 movies of all time for a reason. Same with The Dark Knight. I wont be surprised if Nolan makes the Dark Knight Rises a shitty movie because he never gets recognized for his brilliancy, however i know Nolan wont let these jealous critics get to him and will make another amazing film for his fans.

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  2. Brandt

    No surprises here really other than Christopher Nolan getting snubbed in the Best Director category. I thought The Social Network was severely overrated and got most of its attention due to the subject matter rather than the movie as a whole. I’m a big David Fincher fan and he’s never let me down. Good movie but it didn’t make my Top Ten. I thought Howl was by far the best movie of the year with its combination of animation, acting (James Franco as Allen Ginsberg), and cinematography. You can check out my list on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-movie-picks-of-2010.html

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  3. Shoot the Critic

    Christopher Nolan did a great job with ‘Memento’. Then he tried to make the same movie again and again, but with a bigger budget, bigger stars, bigger sets, bigger everything. All overblown, distracting, unfocused, and lacking the beautiful pace and tight narration that made ‘Memento’ feel so perfect. In my opinion, he needs to tone it down and really make something great instead of just throwing a bunch of possibly great things at a huge blockbuster movie. I enjoyed “Inception” but it didn’t need to be almost three hours, and most of the action scenes went on for way too long, repeating the same effect. ‘The Prestige’ was fine. Same with the batman movies. The stories stem from good, interesting ideas, but fail to be adequately developed. Part of the problem is the lack of real characters and too much emphasis on over-done action sequences.

    I personally thought Debra Granik should have been nominated for directing “Winter’s Bone” — a film nominated for writing and whose two wonderful actors received nods. But of course she was not considered in this poll. From the list given, my choice would have to be Ryan Gosling for his work in “Blue Valentine.” He is an exceptional actor who will one day, sooner or later, be recognized by these awards.
    I posted all my personal picks and predictions here:
    http://shootthecritic.com/features/academy_award_nominees_2011

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