Favourite shots from the Cinematography nominees

Some people have let me know how disappointed they were that I didn't make time in my analysis of Best Cinematography this year to highlight my favourite shots from each of the nominees as I did last year. I didn't really think anyone cared about it, but I've had requests, so I'll gladly oblige.

But first, I have to refer you to Kris Tapley's annual top ten list for the best moving images of the year; an absolute treat I look forward to reading and linking to every Oscar season.

Like last year, I'm limiting my list of shots to the five nominees for Best Cinematography, simply because I haven't the time to go sifting through all the year's movies again to find my favourites overall. Anyway, see them after the cut.

One Category at a Time: Picture

A year ago, when the Best Picture ten and that damned preferential ballot were first upon us, I questioned whether or not the conventional rules of what "can" win Best Picture would still apply. I analyzed the key nominations that the ten nominees either possessed or lacked in order to narrow them down to three frontrunners, and those three (assumed) frontrunners went on to win six of the eight major categories between them, so I'd say those conventional rules are still a fairly accurate barometer of which films are in the best position.

Let's try it again, shall we? To win Best Picture, a film needs nominations for Directing, Writing, and especially Editing. Let's see which of this year's crop have all three necessary nominations:

127 Hours: Editing (Y), Directing (N), Writing (Y)
Black Swan: Editing (Y), Directing (Y), Writing (N)
The Fighter: Editing (Y), Directing (Y), Writing (Y)
Inception: Editing (N), Directing (N), Writing (Y)
The Kids Are All Right: Editing (N), Directing (N), Writing (Y)
The King's Speech: Editing (Y), Directing (Y), Writing (Y)
The Social Network: Editing (Y), Directing (Y), Writing (Y)
Toy Story 3: Editing (N), Directing (N), Writing (Y)
True Grit: Editing (N), Directing (Y), Writing (Y)
Winter's Bone: Editing (N), Directing (N), Writing (Y)

And lo, there you have your three frontrunners: The King's Speech, The Social Network, and The Fighter.

The King's Speech is obviously the one out ahead. With twelve nominations total (including three acting nods), it's poised to rule the night, likely winning between five and eight categories on its way to Best Picture. It's simply the movie that pleases across the board. Everyone will have it near, if not at the very top of their ballot.


The Fighter, with three acting bids of its own, might be considered the most formidable challenger, but The Social Network's critical respect is nothing to sneeze at, and big wins from ACE and BAFTA have given some people enough confidence to predict either a Picture/Director split or an outright upset. It might be a close race for 2nd place between those two. Sadly, we'll never know who wins.

True Grit might be in better position if it weren't for that lack of an Editing nod, but it's probably your fourth place finisher. Ten nominations is an impressive showing of support. It's troubling to imagine that it might be shut out completely. Our hopes are dangling on Roger Deakins' in Best Cinematography (gulp).

You can order the remaining six nominees however you like, but none of them stand much a shot:

-True, Black Swan and 127 Hours each have two of those three necessary nods, but they both deal with subject matter that many a conservative Academy member is simply not going to get behind. They can forget those valuable 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place votes.
-Winter's Bone and The Kids Are All Right have a Writing and two Acting nominations a piece, but nothing else. They're likely too small in scope to register with enough voters in order to pull off an upset.
-Toy Story 3 has that blasted animation bias to contend with, although sentimentality could go a long way in keeping it alive through the first few elimination rounds.
-Inception was probably never that well liked with this group, as the egregious snubs for Director and Editing seem to suggest. Genre bias is a bitch.

Will win (ranks):
#1 The King's Speech
#2 The Social Network
#3 The Fighter
#4 True Grit
#5 Toy Story 3
#6 Black Swan
#7 The Kids Are All Right
#8 Inception
#9 Winter's Bone
#10 127 Hours

Should win (ranks):
#1 The Social Network
#2 Black Swan
#3 Inception
#4 The Kids Are All Right
#5 Toy Story 3
#6 True Grit
#7 The King's Speech
#8 127 Hours
#9 The Fighter
#10 Winter's Bone

Should have been nominated (top five):
#1 Exit Through the Gift Shop
#2 The Illusionist
#3 Another Year
#4 Fish Tank
#5 Rabbit Hole

One Category at a Time: Director

Flip a coin folks. Much like Film Editing, here's another category that can go either the way of The Social Network of The King's Speech.

It's a funny thing, the mechanistics of the awards race. All through December it became apparent that David Fincher was the man to beat for Best Director, having snagged two dozen critics awards (including the Critics' Choice) and the Golden Globe. Even when The King's Speech stole the PGA and accrued twelve Oscar nominations, thus becoming the Best Picture frontrunner, Best Director was still David Fincher's to lose... until the DGA and its massive voting membership (most of whom work in television) handed their top honour to Tom Hooper. He became the new leader of the pack, but then his fellow countrymen in BAFTA tipped the hat in Fincher's direction again, making this once more, a tight two-horse race.

To predict a split, or not predict a split?

When in doubt, go with the Best Picture winner. And go with it I shall.

Naturally, the nominee who deserves it the most - Darren Aronofsky for his dazzling execution of Black Swan - has the least shot of winning. Figures.

As for the Coens and David O. Russell, I'm happy for them. Honest. But I can't pretend like they belong here over the likes of Christopher Nolan. True Grit was a helluva good popcorn movie, but had so little personality outside of the performances. And The Fighter is simply overrated. Not that I blame Russell so much for its garbled structure and arrhythmia, but I still don't really consider it a great achievement in directing.

Will win: Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
Runner-up: David Fincher, The Social Network

Should win: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Should have been nominated: Christopher Nolan, Inception

CDG winners

Contemporary: Black Swan
Fantasy: The King's Speech
Period: Alice in Wonderland

As expected. The King's Speech and Alice are neck-in-neck for the Oscar. Same with Art Direction. I don't know what to do!

At least the Oscar-snubbed Amy Westcott got some recognition for her outstanding costumes in Black Swan.

One Category at a Time: Film Editing

This is just one of many tight races that will be decided on Oscar night. The King's Speech and The Social Network are neck-in-neck. As I've stated before, the cause for uncertainty stems from the two conflicting schools of thought on how the general Academy votes on these categories that they might not understand; do they vote for the movie they liked better, or for the movie with the more noticeable craft? There are probably plenty of voters who fall into either camp, but as to which camp is more populated is anybody's guess.

At least it comes down the two most deserving nominees, in my opinion. Tariq Anwar does a terrific job at punctuating the actors' performances with shrewd shot selection for The King's Speech, and Baxter and Wall give The Social Network a flow that can't be topped. Either of them would make a fine winner in lieu of Lee Smith, who suffered the most egregious snub of the year when the editors branch gave Inception the kick.
The only clue I can look to for guidance (or misguidance as the case may be) is the ACE Eddie, which has gone to the eventual Oscar winner for the last nine consecutive years, almost always in the Drama category. The Social Network took that this year, so I'm gonna put my faith in the trend.

As for the also-rans, there's some decent work on display, most notably Andrew Weisblum's cutting of Black Swan. I don't relish the task of trying to moderate and control Aronofsky's off-the-wall visuals. The boxing sequences in The Fighter were well put together by Pamela Martin, and John Harris certainly amped up the intensity in 127 Hours (even if I'm not exactly on board with that directorial decision).

Will win: The Social Network
Runner-up: The King's Speech

Should win: The Social Network
Should have been nominated: Exit Through the Gift Shop and Inception

One Category at a Time: Cinematography

This is gonna be the most nerve-wracking category of the night for me. Usually, I try not to emotionally invest myself in anything related to Oscar... but I wanna see Roger Deakins win for once, dammit! The man has shot some of my all-time favourite movies, and some of the most memorable images I've ever seen committed to film. If I have to watch him lose for the eighth time I'm gonna stick my head in an oven... and pump that oven full of chlorine gas... and then launch it into the sun.

What's worse is I'm actually predicting him to win, so if he doesn't there's the added sting of having guessed the category wrong. It's quite possible I will be wrong as well. You could make a strong case for any of the nominees winning.

Well, okay, maybe not so much The Social Network. Not that I don't admire Jeff Cronenweth's fine work, but it just doesn't say ''Oscar winner'' to me. But the other four nominees are all plausible victors.

Black Swan has the NY and LA film critics prizes under its tutu, but what it really has going for it is the sheer maddening brilliance of Lebatique and Aronofsky's vision.

Inception has the Critics' Choice and ASC going for it, plus that exhilarated feeling it leaves audiences with as they walk out of the theatre. Wally Pfister had better win an Oscar someday.

The King's Speech has the Best Picture frontrunner factor in it favour, and a potential sweep that threatens to rob dozens of deserving craftspeople of their rightful Oscars. Not that Danny Cohen's framing isn't effective. It's just not the best of the year.

Finally, True Grit has the BAFTA in hand and is the most traditionally beautiful of the five; postcard-perfect vistas and gorgeous lighting (Deakins' specialty, don'tchya know), which may be all it needs to eke out a win. The fact that it's clearly a well liked movie helps.

Damn well better win: True Grit
Runner-up: The King's Speech

Should win: Black Swan
Should have been nominated: Shutter Island

One Category at a Time: Actress

There have been whisperings that Annette Bening is lurking as a serious spoiler threat in this category, pushing the publicity wagon hard as she can in the final weeks before ballots are due. And there's certainly a valid case you can make for her upsetting the frontrunner: she's a beloved actress who's put in years of hard work to create a diverse and respected filmography, she's due for a win, and her performance in The Kids Are All Right is a sincere one. However, if she was going to turn the corner, it had to be at this past Sunday's BAFTAs, and of course that didn't go her way.

So, having nailed down the Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA, it would still be foolish to predict anyone but Natalie Portman taking the Oscar. You'll be hearing no complaints from me. It's a helluva performance that showcases such a wide range from the actress, and she still manages to keep it under control, which is remarkable given how out of control her character is. Even though Black Swan isn't really the Academy's cuppa tea, they surely won't mind awarding it this one prize. After last year's mini-travesty, looks like this category is gonna be right back on track with a quality winner.

But of course, that would still be the case even if Portman somehow loses, because every nominee is all aces. It's simply impossible for them to pick a bad winner from this bunch. Jennifer Lawrence owned Winter's Bone from start to finish with her no-bullshit stoicism, Michelle Williams spun a heartbreaking tandem with Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine, and Nicole Kidman's brilliant turn in Rabbit Hole is one of the most emotionally flavourful she's ever given.

I know how corny this sounds, but seriously, they're all winners.

Will win: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Runner-up: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Should win: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Should have been nominated: Katie Jarvis, Fish Tank

King's Speech woos BAFTA

Surprise, surprise. Seven BAFTAs seems just about what I would have thought for The King's Speech, although I wasn't quite expecting it to take three of the four acting prizes. Helena Bonham Carter winning Best Supporting Actress is only semi-surprising, given frontrunner Melissa Leo's lack of a nomination, but Geoffrey Rush upsetting Christian Bale... let's just hope this doesn't materialize with the Academy.

What most surprises me is that it only took home one craft award (for Original Score). Most people are preparing themselves for an Oscar sweep of sorts, but BAFTA has done a nice job spreading the wealth around. Some choices are dubious, like two awards for Alice in Wonderland (including Costume Design, its biggest Oscar opportunity), but others are inspired, like the Film Editing win for The Social Network. And despite all odds, Inception keeps picking up those richly deserved but hardly expected citations for its year-best Production Design. Might there be hope for Oscar after all?

Black Swan's impressive nomination tally of 12 yielded only a single win for Natalie Portman, but that should hopefully be enough to help her fend off a late surge from Annette Bening.

And what of David Fincher's win? Is he strong enough to overcome Tom Hooper?

Obviously The King's Speech is still going to win Best Picture, but The King's Sweep is looking a bit vulnerable.

Best Film – The King’s Speech
Best Director – The Social Network – David Fincher
Best Leading Actress – Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Best Leading Actor – Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actress – Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actor – Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay – The Social Network – Aaron Sorkin
Best Original Screenplay – The King’s Speech – David Seidler
Outstanding British Film – The King’s Speech
Outstanding British Debut – Four Lions – Chris Morris
Best Cinematography – True Grit – Roger Deakins
Best Editing – The Social Network – Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter
Best Original Music – The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
Best Production Design – Inception – Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland – Colleen Atwood
Best Sound – Inception – Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick
Best Special Visual Effects – Inception – Corbould, Franklin, Lockley, Bebb
Best Make Up & Hair – Alice in Wonderland – Valli O’Reilly, Paul Gooch
Best Short Film – Until the River Runs Red – Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis
Best Short Animation – The Eagleman Stag – Michael Please
Best Film Not in the English Language – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Best Animated Film – Toy Story 3
Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award – Tom Hardy

One Category at a Time: Sound Mixing

In the years I've been doing this I don't believe I've ever guessed both Sound categories correctly (though I've come awfully close). This year has me similarly unsure of myself, as both categories could come down to either of two movies.

The obvious choice in this category, Inception, may actually be less safe than assumed. There's no denying the sophistication of the mix, and the sheer volume of it is all it'll need to convince some voters, but I get the nagging feeling that it's vulnerable to an upset (in both categories) by True Grit. The mixing team (who, in my opinion, should have won this category for No Country for Old Men three years ago) has done a terrific job that's nuanced but noticeable enough to draw votes away from Inception. Love for the film may push it across the finish line here. I'm not ballsy enough to predict it, but I smell a mini-upset in the works.

If it ends up being either The Social Network or The King's Speech, then there's your Best Picture sweeper right there. But those mixes are probably too subtle to register with the Academy at large.

Congrats to Greg P. Russell on his 14th career nomination for Salt. Shame that he's destined to lose yet again. Step up, Academy! Give the man his Oscar. And while you're at it, give one to Kevin O'Connell as well.

Will win: Inception
Runner-up: True Grit

Should win: Inception
Should have been nominated: Black Swan

ADG winners

Period: The King's Speech
Fantasy: Inception
Contemporary: Black Swan

Great to see Inception (the best production design of the year as far as I'm concerned) win out over Alice in Wonderland (the most overrated production design of the year as far as I'm concerned) in the Fantasy category.

The King's Speech expectedly won the Period category for its fine set dressing, likely on its way to Oscar's podium. Black Swan, though ignored by the Academy's art directors branch, took a well deserved gong for Contemporary design.

Congrats to the winners. It's a very fine slate.

SAG winners

Well, went a perfect 6/6 with my predictions, although that's hardly saying much given the incredibly predictable nature of the nominees this year... or any year, for that matter.

So obviously The King's Speech is the one to beat for Oscar's top honours, but the question is to what extent will it sweep? How many of its overly generous six craft nominations can it capitalize on? Art Direction, Costume Design, Score... probably. But there's such more deserving work to choose from in those categories. How many people honestly think Desplat's work is better than Zimmer's or Powell's or Reznor & Ross'? Will they actually go for Beaven's subtle threads over Atwood's "look-at-me" wardrobe? Is this just my own personal bias clouding my judgment? Or are there still cases to be made for the other nominees?

Too many questions. I hate all this uncertainty!

Anyway, the SAG winners, not that you need me to remind you.

Best Ensemble: The King's Speech Best Pic is a done deal.

Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech All hail the King.

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan All hail the Swan Queen.

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale , The Fighter Moving right along...

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter I'd say the Oscar is pretty safe now.

Best Stunt Ensemble: Inception Predictable, but well deserved.

My 2010 Award winners!

You've seen the nominees. Time to see my winners:

Best Picture:
THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Dana Brunetti, Cean Chaffin, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin, David Fincher)


Best Director:
DARREN ARONOFSKY, BLACK SWAN


Best Actor:
JESSE EISENBERG, THE SOCIAL NETWORK


Best Actress:
KATIE JARVIS, FISH TANK


Best Supporting Actor:
ED HARRIS, THE WAY BACK


Best Supporting Actress:
LESLEY MANVILLE, ANOTHER YEAR


Best Acting Ensemble:
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Laura Rosenthal)


Best Original Screenplay:
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg)


Best Adapted Screenplay:
THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Aaron Sorkin)


Best Cinematography:
BLACK SWAN (Matthew Lebatique)


Best Film Editing:
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (Tom Fulford, Chris King)


Best Original Score:
INCEPTION (Hans Zimmer)


Best Original Song:
“SHINE” from WAITING FOR SUPERMAN (John Legend)


Best Production Design, Set Decoration, and Art Direction:
INCEPTION (Guy Dyas, Larry Dias, Douglas Mowat, Brad Ricker)


Best Costume Design:
GET LOW (Julie Weiss)


Best Sound Mixing:
BLACK SWAN (Ken Ishii, Craig Henighan, Dominick Tavella)


Best Sound Editing:
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (Al Nelson, Randy Thom, Jonathan Null)


Best Visual Effects:
INCEPTION (Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb)


Best Makeup and Hair:
THE WOLFMAN (Rick Baker, Lisa Westcott)


Best Animated Feature:
TOY STORY 3 (Lee Unkrich)


Best Foreign Film:
THE ILLUSIONIST (Sylvain Chomet)


Best Documentary:
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (Banksy)


That makes three wins apiece for The Social Network, Black Swan, Inception, and two wins apiece for The Kids Are All Right and Exit Through the Gift Shop.

My Award nominations for 2010

Here's a one-stop recap of my own annual awards. I'll post the winners tomorrow.

The nomination leaders are Inception with 11, Black Swan with 9, The Social Network with 8, and The Kids Are All Right with 6.

Best Picture
Black Swan
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The Social Network
Toy Story 3

My Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director

There's a 4/5 overlap between my Best Picture and Best Director nominations this year, so I'm lumping them into one big post:

Best Picture AND Best Director:

Black Swan, directed by DARREN ARONOFSKY:

Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan is a staggering work of cinema about the artist's odyssey and the self-consuming quest for perfection. Aronosfsky, who has a way of getting his actors to turn themselves inside-out, draws a career-best performance out of Natalie Portman, whose transformation from 'sweet girl' Nina Sayers to the confident but vicious Black Swan is one of the best descents into madness put on film. But this is still Aronofsky's show, and what a terrifying show it is. He puts us inside Nina Sayers' head for a stylized exploration of a tragic artistic process. The screenwriters deserve credit for providing a strong, thematically rich story, but it's more by Aronofsky's direction that we understand Nina's doomed journey.

Inception, directed by CHRISTOPHER NOLAN:

Christopher Nolan's dreamy extravaganza excels both on an emotional level and as pure action entertainment. Nolan pushes the envelope on the tried and true “race against time” technique by staging races against time within races against time within races against time! The entire final hour of the film is a masterstroke of bravura storytelling, executed with infallible clockwork precision. Inception earns the right to have its faults (and it does have faults) forgiven. As far as ambitious, committed, exhilarating, and above all, intelligent movie entertainment goes, it's a winner. Nolan's influences and sources of inspiration are apparent, but you've still never seen anything quite like this. It's a true original.

The Kids Are All Right, by LISA CHOLODENKO:

Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right is a wonderful dramedy of manners whose no-nonsense style delivers a perfectly measured emotional cadence by not drawing attention to itself. To try and pick a standout actor would be folly, as this is a true ensemble piece wherein all five principles give outstanding performances which add up to a whole that is so much greater than the sum of its parts. The film enjoys a genuine realism. Void of snappy one-liners or bold dramatic flare, the comedy and tragedy stem organically from the characters and the complex relationships they share with each other. Subtext abounds in every conversation, and Cholodenko's tactful direction lets it gleam through without ever relinquishing that realness of feeling.

The Social Network, directed by DAVID FINCHER:

Some may get hung up on the historical accuracy of the film (no one for sure knows the true story), but that would be missing the point. It's not a biopic. It can get away with taking creative liberties because of its unimpeachable trifecta of fine writing, intelligent direction, and authentic acting. Aaron Sorkin's screenplay slices through the perceived glory of the Internet with a cynical but perspicacious edge. Give David Fincher credit for extracting such terrific performances from all. He lets every character have just the right amount of exposure, and paces the story as only an expert can (with the help of his excellent film editors Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, of course). It may not have an auteurial feel, but that's probably just as well.

(just Best Picture):
Toy Story 3, directed by Lee Unkrich:
The third instalment of the Toy Story franchise might not have seemed like a good idea on paper, but credit veteran story men John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, and new-to-the-team Michael Arndt for putting together yet another engaging story that continues to push the many themes explored by the two originals while still preserving their charm and wit. What allows the Toy Story movies to continue to resonate after the novelty of the 1995 original concept has worn off is an increasingly direct approach to mature ideas. The script moves swiftly and with purpose before settling into an ending so poignant and emotional it reduced me to a teary mess. They could not have ended this series on a better note. Utter perfection.

(just Best Director):
Exit Through the Gift Shop, directed by BANKSY:

The film threatens to end up as a one-note character study about a larger-than-life personality, but Banksy has bigger plans. By the end we realize that the real question Banksy has been posing is “what are the true natures of art and genius?”. He extrapolates from a wacky biography to a meditation on celebrity, culture, the death of a movement, and creative expression vs. creative pillaging. Is Giuetta a genius or a nut job? Is he the rabbit or the turtle? The answer proposed by Banksy to that small question is pretty obvious, but think about who won that fabled race, and you'll understand his definitive stance on the bigger issues.

Just missed:
Andrea Arnold Fish Tank, Charles Ferguson Inside Job, John Cameron Mitchell Rabbit Hole, Mike Leigh Another Year, Silvain Chomet The Illusionist, Peter Weir The Way Back

Motion Picture Sound Editor nominees!

The final guild has spoken. Black Swan and Inception lead the way with three nods apiece, as well they should. The MPSE has many categories, but the one that matters the most to us Oscar-watchers is this one:

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“Iron Man 2″
“127 Hours”
“Salt”
“TRON Legacy”
“True Grit”
“Unstoppable”

Costume Designers Guild nominees!

EXCELLENCE IN CONTEMPORARY FILM
Black Swan – Amy Westcott
Burlesque – Michael Kaplan
Inception – Jeffrey Kurland
The Social Network – Jacqueline West
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps – Ellen Mirojnick

EXCELLENCE IN PERIOD FILM
The Fighter – Mark Bridges
The King’s Speech – Jenny Beavan
True Grit – Mary Zophres

EXCELLENCE IN FANTASY FILM
Alice in Wonderland – Colleen Atwood
The Tempest – Sandy Powell
TRON: Legacy – Michael Wilkinson & Christine Bieselin Clark

I'm most chagrined to see Julie Weiss' wonderful costuming of Get Low completely ignored. If it couldn't score here, maybe I should let it go from my predictions. But that begs the question: Why only three nominees for period? Did they really not consider entries like Get Low and The Wolfman (among the year's best imo) good enough to bump the nominee count up to five?

Anyway, it looks like Alice in Wonderland, The King's Speech, The Tempest, and True Grit are leading the way, but who to put in that fifth Oscar slot? Might we finally have the first contemporary costume nominee since The Devil Wears Prada? If so, I'm cheering for Black Swan all the way!

Meanwhile, that Fantasy category is a sad state of affairs. Not only are the three nominees pretty lowsy movies (which is beside the point, anyway), but I didn't even find the costumes in them that good. Jany Temime's work in this year's Harry Potter is much more deserving if you ask me.

My Award nominations: Actress

What an outstanding year it's been for Best Actress. It killed me to leave some of the contenders off. Here's who made it:

KATIE JARVIS in Fish Tank:
Jarvis gives a searing portrayal of youthful anger, repression, longing, disillusionment, and self-liberation with furiously commanding yet completely authentic flare. She perfectly embodies what it means to feel trapped inside one's own life, and the pain that's involved in mustering up the willpower to simply leave it all in your rear view.

NICOLE KIDMAN in Rabbit Hole:
Kidman gives one of her finest performances to date as a grieving mother struggling to cope healthily with the death of her son. Her caustic wit serves as a defense mechanism from comforters, but we can see how desperately she needs comfort as her maternal urges begin to override her stubborn sensibilities.

CAREY MULLIGAN in Never Let Me Go:
Mulligan's performance is a devastating blend of unrequited love and graceful maturity. She is a moving centre for a film that is unfortunately not all that moving. She aptly communicates a girlish fear and shyness that evolves into gracious but heartbreaking resignation, all of it underlined with a quiet but immeasurably deep compassion.

NATALIE PORTMAN in Black Swan:
Portman's transformation from 'sweet girl' Nina Sayers into the confident but vicious Black Swan is one of the best descents into madness put on film. Another impressive feat is her dancing; That she is able to exude character and arc on the stage while maintaining complete discipline of technique is astonishing.

MICHELLE WILLIAMS in Blue Valentine:
Every bit as raw and unfiltered as her costar Ryan Gosling, Williams finds genuine pain, joy, love, and heartbreak somewhere inside of her and brings it out onto the screen. Not unlike her outstanding work in Wendy and Lucy (2007), the performance feels lived-in and uninhibited.


Just missed: Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right, Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone, Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right, Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit, Emma Stone in Easy A.