It's that time of the year when award shows bombard the screens of televisions worldwide, we make fun of them, we criticize their stupidity in nominees, and presentation, and we blog, and discuss the ones we all wanted to win, but the one that really matters when it comes to film is the Academy Awards. A few days ago the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released their nominations for the best of film in the year of 2010. Many if not all, I agree with, even though some were completely snubbed. The Academy has a long history of nominating films that aren't suit for the mainstream, and one of the most surprising, and most discussed snub, is one that has been snubbed before as many others do to. However here may be some prominent answers top those eye brow raising questions.

1) No Best Director Nomination for Christopher Nolan?

   Yes, it's the most talked about snub, and his films have been subject to even more talk when it comes down to awards. In 2008 when "The Dark Knight" was released, it was a mega success, it was unspeakable. It had so much hype, so much praise, and many mysteries with the untimely death of one of it's stars Heath Ledger. When it came to Oscar time, the film was nominated for eight awards, and won two. Apart from Heath Ledger winning best supporting actor, the rest of the categories it was nominated for weren't ones that most if any care much about, oh and no best director nomination either. Not even a nom for best score.

  Fast forward to 2010, Nolan's sci-fi, thriller, action movie "Inception" takes you deep into the characters' mind, and subconscious, combining elements of thrill, and mystery. It's again a great success, not "Dark Knight" money, but still acquires the critical, and audience acclaim, and makes a lot of money. Now let's see what "Inception" has been nominated for this year. 

Best Picture

Best Original Screenplay

Best Original Score

Best Sound Editing

Best Sound Mixing

Best Art Direction

Best Cinematography

Best Visual Effects

  Once again eight nominations, but this time the categories are more known, and well though out than just best sound mixing. The real big question though is "why no best director nomination Christopher Nolan deserves it?", and the Academy has a certain block when it comes to Nolan, maybe he's just too good for them.....no, because if so than David Fincher, and the Coen Brothers wouldn't even be mentioned, but I think the real reason as to why he was snubbed, is because "Inception" was a great success fanatically, and publicly. This is a true fact that almost everyone's heard of "Inception" whether it be because they saw the film or just that very recognizable sound that plays over, and over again. The reality is that Nolan's films are always success, maybe some not big time blockbusters, but he makes films that people go and see, and sometimes more than once.

  You may ask yourself, if "Inception" was a big hit than why did "Avatar" receive so many nominations last year". If you look at the nominations for last year "Avatar" only was nominated for nine awards. I think personally most of the reason why was because of James Cameron's star power, he's a power house of a director. He gets what he wants, and also the big cache to "Avatar" last year was the fact it was going up against "The Hurt Locker" which Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigalow directed. "Inception" will win some awards I have no doubt in my mind, and if it doesn't well then let the haters hate, but Nolan is a filmmaker who doesn't need awards to know when he's made something great.

2) "Tron: Legacy", visual effects snub?

  It seems everything that is going for this movie, is also going against it. "Tron: Legacy" is nice to look at, and it has some thematic elemts that make it a bit more than just a animated movie for kids from Disney's warehouse of films. The whole movie was a CGI acid trip, but it was good CG, not horrid CG like most we see often. Why would a movie that's primarly all CG not get a nomination for best visual effects. My answer is, because it's a nerd fantasy. The VFX nerds creamed in their pants oncd they saw the reebooted world of Tron. Like Scott Pilgrim nerds went nuts over it defending it in every right, and the Academy can't put up with that shit. They're to formal get get a loose basck and actually nominate something for that nerd population out there, which if it weren't for them these awards wouldn't matter it's the film buffs, and geeks that watch these awards not normal everyday people they don't give two shits about if a movie they saw won best original score.

3) Daft Punk

 Another Tron, one. Daft Punk is a team that you wouldn't think would make a film score, but they did an amazing job for "Tron: Legacy", and I think going from a general techno duo, and then leading a Hollywood movie score is a big leap that should be recognized, not only just because it was a big leap, but because it's such a damn good score.

  They made an actual movie score, while adding techno, and funk to the mix, and didn't just make a huge remix fest. Daft Punk also happens to be a lot of people's favorite techno group, and have made very popular music, and how awesome would it have been for them to walk up on that stage in their robot helmets. Again my answer is because it's another nerdgasm thing. Tron in of itself is one whole nerdgasm, and the score is amazing, but maybe only amazing to the nerd population, and not amazing to the Academy. It would've been awesome, but sadly won't happen.

4) Why was "Toy Story 3" nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay

 This didn't make much sense to me either is "Toy Story 3" really adapted from anything, not really it's not adapted from  a book turned movie deal, or anything, so what's the point. Michael Arndt, screenwriter for "Toy Story 3" has said, “because it’s based on characters from the first two films". Even that didn't make sense, so what it's a sequel, that doesn't really count as "adapted" from anything it's a sequel to something original. Now if there was a book that came out before the film was made that had the same story, and all and the movie adapted the story straight from the book, than yes it would follow suit, but adapted, I don't think so. Whatever we all know it's still going to win best animated picture

5) Why "The King's Speech" so much?

  Really simple it's one of those films that the Academy bows to. With it leading at 12 nominations you can expect it to win big time. The real question though has been "Is it slowing down momentum for "The Social Network"", and my answer is no, it's not. "The Social Network" is a better film, a better made film, and is a film that if it doesn't win big people will go nuts over, because 2010 was the year of Facebook, and not only is the film good, but it as i have said many times before expresses the times we live in as a society, and I don't think any other film this year has meant, and shown so much as "The Social Network". Will "The King's speech" win many times, yes, no question about it, but will it upset the order for "The Social Network" no.

What do you think about the Oscar nominations, and snubs?