The number one film at the UK box office, The King’s Speech, leads the field in the race for the Oscars, with twelve nominations — including Best Picture, Best Actor for Colin Firth, Best Supporting Actor for Geoffrey Rush and Best Supporting Actress Helena Bonham Carter. The film is also up for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
The Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit has ten nominations — including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor for last year’s winner Jeff Bridges and Best Supporting Actress for Hailee Steinfeld.
The Social Network, which beat them both to the Golden Globe Best Drama award is also up for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of the Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.
Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan has picked up nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for Natalie Portman.
She’ll be up against Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Michelle Williams (Blue Velvet) and Jennifer Lawrence for Winter’s Bone.
That critically acclaimed low-budget feature also picked up nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and for John Hawkes in the Best Supporting Actor category.
He’s up against Jeremy Renner (The Town), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech) and Christian Bale (The Fighter).
Two of his co-stars, Melissa Leo and Amy Adams, are up against each other in the Supporting Actress category. Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom), Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech) and Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) complete this category.
Colin Firth, who lost out to Jeff Bridges last year, will be hoping their fortunes will be reversed. Eisenberg, Javier Bardem (Biutiful) and the host of the Oscar’s show James Franco (127 Hours) will be trying to stop him.
Disney Pixar will be pleased to see the highly acclaimed Toy Story 3 picking up nominations not just in the Animated Feature category, but also for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay — where it faces competition from The Social Network, Winter’s Bone, 127 Hours and True Grit.
There’s a strong British field in the Best Original Screenplay contest, with Mike Leigh (Another Year), Christopher Nolan (Inception) and David Seidler (The King’s Speech) up against The Kids Are All Right and The Fighter.
The Best Director award will go to either Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), David O Russell (The Fighter), Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), David Fincher (The Social Network) or the Coen brothers (True Grit).
Those five films also have Best Picture nominations, alongside 127 Hours, Winter’s Bone, The Kids Are All Right, Inception and the rare appearance in the category for a nomination, Toy Story 3.
The Academy Awards will be handed out at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on February 27th.