Later on today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce their shortlist for this year’s Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars.
I don’t particularly want to comment on proceedings until they occur, so I won’t. I’ll post an update later this afternoon.
UPDATE: And the nominations are in!
Toy Story 3 did get the anitcipated Best Feature nomination, but it also received a spot in the Best Animated Feature category, much the same way Up did last year. I doubt we will see history being made on February 27th however.
Also nice to see The Illusionist get a nod although it faces stif competition from Now To Train Your Dragon and the afforementioned Pixar juggernaut. Again, there was no good reason for having a three-spot shortlist when it could have been so easy to find just two more animated films that are worthy. Cartoon Brew has a good summary of all the aniamation-related nominations.
In the short film section, it’s disappointing to see that Bill Plympton will have to wait another year for a crack at the golden statuette. At this point, it would seem that Day and Night is leading the race for that category.
So, overall, it’s the usual suspects once again, in both animation and live-action. There’s no real surprises and the best films are excluded in both the general and technical categories. Perhaps I ought to make like that one guy and hold my own alternative awards show the night before, where I announce my winners.