Oscar Fever

Nominations for Best Picture:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker - Winner
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air




Nominations for Best Actor:
Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart - Winner
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Morgan Freeman - Invictus
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker

Nominations for Actor in a Supporting Role:
Mat Damon - Invictus
Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christopher Waltz - Inglourious Basterds - Winner

Nominations for Actress in a Leading Role:
Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side - Winner
Helen Mirren - The Last Station
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Gabourey Sidbe - Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Meryl Streep - Julia and Julia

Actress in a Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz - Nine
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire - Winner

What's all about?

Cashing in
“Oscar winner”. It’s a label that means success, fame and, yes, riches. Nabbing a Best Picture Oscar generally guarantees a film an extra US$20-US$50 million ($21-$54 million) in ticket sales. Titanic earned a further US$100 million. According to Variety, a win in any major category will boost a film’s revenues by US$11m.

Anyone who wins a Best Actor or Actress award is instantly promoted to the “A List” and can exponentially increase their acting fee. It’s rumoured that Hilary Swank upped her asking price from US$1m to US$8m a picture after winning Best Actress (her second) in 2005 for the aptly named Million Dollar Baby.

More the merrier
This year the Academy has ­announced that it is allowing ten movies to be nominated for Best Picture, instead of five. Wildly popular animated films, comedies and smaller independent films now stand a better chance of being nominated. (No animated film has ever won Best Picture.) The change should also boost viewer numbers for the annual ceremony because more film fans will tune in, hoping to see their favourite movie win.

Who votes?
The 5835 members of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Members nominate candidates in their respective fields – film editors vote for film editing, etc. Oscar winners are chosen by a second round of voting where all members vote in each category.

On the day of the cere­mony the results are tallied and sealed in 22 envelopes. (A duplicate set is locked away… just in case.)

"I'd like to thank..."
Winners are told to limit thank-yous to 45 seconds or risk being drowned out by the orchestra. Many ignore this. In 2001, Julia Roberts began her Best Actress award acceptance speech for her role in Erin Brockovich by making sure the conductor knew exactly how she felt: “Sir, you’re doing a great job but you’re so quick with that stick. So why don’t you sit, because I may never be here again.” It worked; the orchestra let her finish.

What were they thinking?
It is a question often asked about the Academy’s many missteps in failing to honour the greats. Alfred Hitchcock, nominated five times for Best Director, never won. His movies Vertigo, The Birds, and The Man Who Knew Too Much weren’t even nominated for Best Picture. Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles were snubbed. George C. Scott and Marlon Brando thought so little of the awards they refused to accept their Best Actor statuettes. Best Actress winner Jodie Foster once said, “Much as I love the Oscar-night pageantry, it’s just a silly bingo game.”