With 12 nods, 'The King's Speech' leads all nominees with the Coen brothers' box office smash 'True Grit' hot on its tail with a surprise 10 nominations, and while the 'Social Network' scored an impressive eight nods (tied with 'Inception' for third best), supporting players Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake didn't feel any Oscar love. Nor did Ben Affleck's acclaimed hit 'The Town' -- its only nomination came for Jeremy Renner in the best supporting actor category.
So who came out of nowhere to take their place? After the jump, we break down who got left in the cold and who got invited to the big show instead.
►Best Actor: Javier Bardem ('Biutiful') in, Ryan Gosling ('Blue Valentine') out
While Gosling has been touch-and-go throughout awards season, having received a best actor nomination for 'Blue Valentine' at the Golden Globes but failing to receive any love from the Screen Actors Guild, he seemed to be gaining steam heading into the Oscar noms. His low-budget film is a small-scale hit, and critics love his performance as a young husband trying to resuscitate his failing marriage. Even in the moments before the best actor announcement, things were looking good for the handsome actor as his on-screen other half, Michelle Williams, landed on the best actress list. But it wasn't meant to be (at least this year) for Gosling, with Bardem (an Oscar winner for 'No Country for Old Men') sweeping in with his Spanish-language film to score a surprise best actor nod. Bardem's nom comes entirely out of left field -- while he's certainly received raves for his performance in 'Biutiful,' this is the first major American award nomination for his performance. He also edged out 'Get Low' legend Robert Duvall, whose SAG nod seemed to make him Gosling's truest competition for a best actor nomination.
►Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld ('True Grit') in, Mila Kunis ('Black Swan') out
That Steinfeld received a nomination isn't really a surprise, but that she received it as best supporting actress might be. Her inclusion here instead of in the lead actress category almost certainly pushed Kunis, who up to this point had been nominated for every major award, out. 'True Grit's' studio, Paramount, campaigned hard for Steinfeld to be nominated for best supporting actress, though many -- including the British Academy, who nominated her 'Grit' turn for best actress -- believe (rightly) that she is the film's female lead. Conventional wisdom was that Steinfeld's performance straddled the line between supporting and lead and she stood a better shot at a nomination in the supporting category. (Conventional wisdom here appears to have been correct.) A reverse of this same situation occurred in 2009, when Miramax tried to push Kate Winslet's role in 'The Reader' as a supporting one, but the Academy wasn't having it and nominated her for lead actress (which she went on to win) instead. Either way, Kunis will have to content herself with 'Swan's' five other nominations, including best picture and best director (Darren Aronofsky).
►Best Supporting Actor: John Hawkes ('Winter's Bone') and Mark Ruffalo ('The Kids Are All Right') in, Michael Douglas ('Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps') and Andrew Garfield ('The Social Network') out
Hawkes' nomination might be the biggest surprise among the acting nominees, but you won't hear us complaining. ('Winter's Bone' deserves every bit of Oscar love it received.) Not hearing Mo'Nique call Andrew Garfield's name, however, was perhaps even more jarring, as he seemed as assured an acting nom for 'The Social Network' as co-star Jesse Eisenberg, who did earn a nod for his lead performance. And while Douglas always seemed like a bit of a long shot for 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,' his Golden Globe nod and the general goodwill he's experiencing after recently announcing that his cancer is in complete remission made him a contender -- especially since many consider 'The Kids Are All Right' to be more of a showcase for Annette Bening and Julianne Moore, which has made Ruffalo a take-him-or-leave-him inclusion throughout awards season.
►Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen ('True Grit') in, Christopher Nolan ('Inception') out
Frankly, we could have subbed just about any of the very talented directors who made it into this category over Nolan in place of the Coen brothers. Simply put, the deft and assured hand Nolan brought to the challenging 'Inception' deserved a nomination, and all major pundits expected he would be included. How can a film be recognized for its music, screenplay (which Nolan wrote), sound, visual effects, cinematography, art direction and overall quality (best picture) but not earn a nod for the man who controlled all of those things? Its screenplay and best picture nods indicate Academy members viewed 'Inception' as more than a technical achievement, so leaving out the man who not only conceived the film as a writer but executed it (with apparent technical precision) as a director is a crime against cinema.
►Best Picture: '127 Hours' in, 'The Town' out
Since its early fall release, Ben Affleck's second film as a director, 'The Town,' seemed a likely Oscar nominee. The best picture field was opened to 10 films last year in an effort to include more highbrow studio fare (i.e. films that middle America actually saw), and 'The Town' is a perfect fit: a star-studded, critically acclaimed box office hit (it grossed $92 million in the U.S.) from a director well liked by the Hollywood establishment. Of all the disses this year, the chilly reception for 'The Town' (it received only one nomination) is high on the list, and it's even more surprising that it was brought down by Danny Boyle's '127 Hours,' a buzzed-about indie that got left in the dust, making just $11 million while other specialty releases -- like 'Black Swan' ($83 million), 'The King's Speech' ($57 million) and 'The Fighter' ($72 million) -- went on to find mainstream audiences (something their many Oscar nominations should continue to help them with) and box office glory.
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