At the 2011 Academy nominations, King’s Speech maintains its domination with 12 nominations and the critics’ favorite, The Social Network garners 8. The Fighter is still there with seven nominations in key categories. True Grit got 8 nominations and the biggest surprise of all was Inception with 8 nominations and Christopher Nolan being again ignored in the Best Director’s category. This is the second time for Nolan, he was passed over for the The Dark Knight in 2009.

With the director being snubbed in the best category it is quite unlikely that Inception will get the Best Picture . Black Swan, another hot favorite got 5 nominations.

True Grit’s Coen brothers have had a kinder run with the Academy, being nominated for direction, cinematography, Best Picture and screenplay, all key nominations. The Fighter is another one making it to all the key categories which makes their race to the Best picture run that much stronger.

Jeff Bridges has been nominated for best actor. Javier Bardema is a surprise nominee for his Biutiful. Mark Wahlberg has been left out although he is in the producers category for The Fighter. Even James Franco is a surprise.

Actors in a supporting role -- it is a close fight between Christian Bale in The Fighter and Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech.
For Best actress, the excitement is about Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine, Annette Bening in The Kids Are Alright along with Natalie Portman in Black Swan, no surprises there but Nicole Kidman is another surprise.

In the Best Supporting actress category Mila Kunis has been ignored although she was a Golden Globe and SAG nominee. The true fight will be between Amy Adams in The Fighter, Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit and Melissa Leo again in The Fighter. Jackie Weaver, a surprise nomination and Helena Bonham Carter seem far-fetched.

Danny Boyle must be a happy man for he was ignored in the awards preceding the Oscar run and now his 127 Hours has got nominated for best editing, best picture along with best actor In the Best Picture category along with the other new expected nominations like Toy Story 3, Winter’s Bone.

Golden globe