The 83rd Academy Award Nominees Are In!

Well folks, the nominations for Academy Awards are out and the nominees for Best Picture are:

• 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

For a full listing of all the awards, visit the 83rd Annual Academy Awards website.

I've tried to make it a goal of at least seeing at 20% of the nominated films each year. I call it a personal success if I saw one of the nominated films before they were announced. In the past that would mean seeing at least one of the 5 films, but with the recent move of having 10 films compete for Best Picture, I've been forced to step up my game and strive to see at least two of 'em. So far with the expanded 10 film category, I've managed to go two for two in seeing 2 of the nominated films before they were announced. However, I must confess in bitter defeat that the 81st Academy Awards (in which Slumdog Millionaire won) is the only year since 1985 that I still haven't seen a single one of the nominated films, even to this day. Some day, just not this day.

Of the films this year, I've only seen The King's Speech and Inception. Both were fantastic films. While I will probably see all the films on that list one day, likely fulfilling some kind of bar bet, the only one that I'm really disappointed I've yet to see is True Grit. Since I can't attest to the rest of the lot, I can only go on my gut and ignorance and take a bet that The King's Speech will take the award.

The award show will air Sunday, February 27, 2011.