And the nominees are in...

The Oscars were announced this morning.

Best Picture

• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The Kids Are All Right
• The King's Speech
• 127 Hours
• The Social Network
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit
• Winter's Bone

Best Director

• Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
• Joel Coen and Ethan Coen – True Grit
• David Fincher – The Social Network
• Tom Hooper – The King's Speech
• David O. Russell – The Fighter

Best Actor

• Javier Bardem – Biutiful as Uxbal
• Jeff Bridges – True Grit as Rooster Cogburn
• Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network as Mark Zuckerberg
• Colin Firth – The King's Speech as King George VI
• James Franco – 127 Hours as Aron Ralston

Best Actress

• Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right as Nic
• Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole as Becca Corbett
• Jennifer Lawrence – Winter's Bone as Ree Dolly
• Natalie Portman – Black Swan as Nina Sayers
• Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine as Cindy

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

• Christian Bale – The Fighter as Dicky Eklund
• John Hawkes – Winter's Bone as Teardrop
• Jeremy Renner – The Town as James "Gem" Coughlin
• Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right as Paul
• Geoffrey Rush – The King's Speech as Lionel Logue

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Amy Adams – The Fighter as Charlene Fleming
• Helena Bonham Carter – The King's Speech as Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
• Melissa Leo – The Fighter as Alice Ward
• Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit as Mattie Ross
• Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom as Janine "Smurf" Cody

Best Animated Picture

• How to Train Your Dragon – Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
• The Illusionist – Sylvain Chomet
• Toy Story 3 – Lee Unkrich

For the full list of nominees, click here (Wikipedia).

So far, I've seen… half of the Best Picture nominees. I'm hoping to see The King's Speech, The Kids Are All Right, and 127 Hours before the telecast. Given that The King's Speech shined at the Golden Globes and it has 12 nominations, I feel like it's probably take home best picture much to my dismay, but then again, I haven't seen it yet. According to Roger Ebert on Twitter, he thinks that The King's Speech or The Social Network will take it home and they'll dominate the awards. Hope not. I really enjoyed Black Swan. More so than The Social Network (although it was still good).

Best Actor, if the Golden Globes can be used as foreshadowing, will probably go to Colin Firth for The King's Speech. I'm really happy that Jesse Eisenberg was recognized (although he's like Michael Cera and good at playing the awkward kid). They just cast him really well.

If Natalie Portman doesn't take home the Oscar for Best Actress, I'll be very upset. She's very deserving. She was in the Star Wars prequels for crying out loud! Haha. Otherwise, I would like to see Michelle Williams take it home although I have yet to see Blue Valentine.

I used to be a Christian Bale fan, until I found out what an asshole he is. Have you heard the Terminator rant? "I'm a method actor!" Shut the fuck up Christian. If he wins Best Actor in a Supporting Role, I'll be upset. He may have won the Golden Globe, but I hope that Jeremy Renner or Mark Ruffalo take home the Oscar. It doesn't help that I have a grudge against the Fighter. I haven't seen it (and don't care to), but they should've just called it Rocky 6. I'm over generic sports movies like boxing movies.

I love Helena Bonham Carter. She is so talented and I love her even more because she is Bellatrix Lastrange! I would like to see her win the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. I also enjoyed Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit. She was surprisingly talented. She had some tough lines in that movie. I wouldn't mind seeing her win either!

Best Animated Picture is iffy. Believe it or not, this is the first Toy Story movie to be nominated in the Best Picture category and in the Animated category. Why the first time for Animated? The Animated category was first introduced at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002. The first two Toy Storys were already old news at the time. Shrek took home the first Animated Oscar win. Anyways, I'm really hoping for Toy Story 3, although I did really like How to Train Your Dragon. But don't forget about that third nominee. It wouldn't the first time if that one just snuck up and killed the other two. Remember Spirited Away?

Who was snubbed? Mila Kunis first and foremost. She was perfection in Black Swan. She deserves a nomination at least. Leonardo DiCaprio's performances in Inception and Shutter Island weren't as strong as his usually are, but they're still really good. I'm not surprised that he was snubbed, but I'm still disappointed. I'd also like to say that I'm so happy that Justin Timberlake was snubbed. Critics were raving about his performance and the studio was going to campaign for his Oscar nomination, but he didn't get it and honestly he did not deserve it. His co-star Andrew Garfield should've gotten one though. And finally… I haven't seen Buried yet, but at the time of it's release, critics were saying how amazing Ryan Reynolds performance was. I'm surprised that he didn't get one for leading actor. Finally, Christopher Nolan was snubbed for best director for Inception. But the man has two other nominations under his belt for the movie (best picture and writing). We all know he's phenomenal.

Congrats to Harry Potter and its two nominations and Tron: Legacy, Alice in Wonderland, Iron Man 2, and Salt. All of these were nominated in minor categories.