I am not entirely surprised by the films which have made the shortlist, and I know which of those I will be pulling for to make the final five which will be in contention for the Oscar.

Here is the press release:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that seven films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 83rd Academy Awards®.
The films are listed below in alphabetical order:
“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Hereafter”
“Inception”
“Iron Man 2”
“Scott Pilgrim vs the World”
“Tron: Legacy”

All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films on Thursday, January 20. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Source: Collider

Now, the L.A Times have just reported that the Oscar will now be returned to Michelle Williams, Heath Ledger’s ex, to keep until his daughter Matilda is 18, to which it would then pass on to her. The Times stated: “We expect a representative of the Ledger estate to bring the statuette in tomorrow [or soon thereafter] so that the engraved plate can be affixed,” she said. “Soon after that, we expect the statuette [with engraved plate] to be delivered to Michelle Williams.”

Actor Heath Ledger was previously nominated for an Oscar for his role in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, for which he won Best Actor at the New York Film Critics Awards.

Source: Digital Spy

In the dead of winter, there are only a few things people do to keep themselves busy. This would include lots of indoor sex and lots of movie watching. (Don’t pretend you can’t relate) It is also the time everybody everywhere discusses the nominees of the upcoming Academy Awards.  In my opinion, the Academy Awards are very over-hyped. Boring and dull movies for which the snobby “Print” Press rave up to be breath-taking and spectacular are always the front runners, while movies the general public watched and loved are lucky to be recognized at The MTV Movie Awards.  

Sure, there are always those cool underdog nominees that surprise you year after year like Terrence Howard for Hustle and Flow, Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean, and Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls. Seeing those actors being nominated was incredible, despite the fact that everybody knew that there wasn’t a chance in hell they were taking the beloved Oscar trophy home. (Eddie Murphy must still be kicking himself for Norbit.) 

However, when the Academy announced that Robert Downey Jr. had “earned” a supporting actor nomination for his role as Kirk Lazarus, the pompous Aussie method actor who undergoes surgery that darkens his skin so he can play an African-American sergeant, I was flabbergasted.  

While majority of filmgoers were stunned over the ‘snubbing’ of The Dark Knight, (something everybody should have expected anyways) I, on the other hand was wondering what the Academy had been smoking to make such a bizarre nomination choice. The world has seen some amazing changes in the past year. Inaugurating the first visible minority President has definitely promoted and encouraged the idea of ‘racial unity.’ How the Academy members had thought that nominating an actor in ‘blackface’ was appropriate is beyond me. 

Even if we hadn’t seen any positive changes in the past year, what had made the Academy think that ANYTHING in Tropic Thunder was worthy of a nomination period? 

I know the general public had thought Tropic Thunder was the funniest movie of 2008, but just like how I felt about Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, the inner “print snob” in me felt the film was fairly overhyped. Sorry to say, but Tropic Thunder just did not induce the knee-buckling laughter the trailers and my peers made me think it would. The concept was inventive, but all I kept thinking was, ‘Is this supposed to be funny?’ ‘Am I supposed to be laughing and did this movie require such an outlandish budget?’ There were literally parts in the movie when I was laughing uncomfortably because I had no idea of what to think of what I was witnessing onscreen. 

Did the world really think the unexpected extended cameo of a potty-mouthed Tom Cruise dancing to that dreaded “Low” song that annoyingly got stuck in people’s heads after all the needless Step Up 2 television spots was all that funny? It just seemed like something that would have been hilarious in 1998 rather than 2008.  Not to mention that the film used curse words so excessively that they were making adverbs out of them and a lot of the offensive jokes were something you would have seen way back in a first season episode of South Park.

Sure, Robert Downey Jr. had some funny lines and that “full-retard” speech was classic, but really, most of Robert Downey Jr.’s lines were clichéd and stereotypical.  Most of his lines only worked when he was working alongside the young actor who played the rapper turned actor in the film. In my opinion, if anybody was going to “Forrest Gump” their way to an Oscar nomination, that kid deserved it. 

Poor Robert Downey Jr. All these years of working hard and choosing worthy roles, hoping for the chance of being nominated again, and all he had to do was talk about eating collard greens and recite lyrics from the theme song of The Jeffersons to get recognized once again? That just makes NO sense to me.  

This is why I do not even like watching the Academy awards anymore due to the fact that it’s all about politics.  Is Robert Downey Jr. really getting nominated for his performance? No. He’s getting nominated because he was recognized by the media for being a bankable actor once again.  (I refuse to use the word ‘comeback’ because I don’t think Robert Downey Jr. ever had has been status) 

Think about all the roles Robert Downey Jr. could have been nominated for if he had just chosen to do them after Iron Man. His portrayal of Harry Lockhart in the much overlooked Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or even his portrayal as Tommy, Holly Hunter’s hilarious and eccentric homosexual brother in Home for the Holidays (my personal favourite) could have been noticed. Sh*t, even his performance in Gothika could have gotten a nomination. (Or at least a Golden Globe nomination…lol) 

I think Robert Downey Jr. is an amazing actor and he is long overdue for Oscar nomination, but just like Denzel Washington’s nomination and win for Training Day, he is simply being nominated for being likeable rather than being the ‘best’ supporting actor. This is sad because other actors missed out on being nominated. Poor Leonardo Dicaprio can’t even practice his annual graceful losing face this year because of this. 

So what do you guys think? Do you think this is a deserved nomination or do you agree that it was a wrong choice?  Either way, let’s cross our fingers for a posthumous win for Heath Ledger! He’s the man who truly deserves this award.