And the Oscar Nominees Are.....

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 Actress: Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All Right"; Nicole Kidman, "Rabbit Hole"; Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone"; Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"; Michelle Williams, "Blue Valentine"

Best Actor: Javier Bardem, "Biutiful"; Jeff Bridges, "True Grit"; Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network"; Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"; James Franco, "127 Hours"

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, "The Fighter"; Helena Bonham Carter, "The King's Speech"; Melissa Leo, "The Fighter"; Hailee Steinfeld, "True Grit"; Jacki Weaver, "Animal Kingdom"

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, "The Fighter"; John Hawkes, "Winter's Bone"; Jeremy Renner, "The Town"; Mark Ruffalo, "The Kids Are All Right"; Geoffrey Rush, "The King's Speech"

Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, "Black Swan"; David O. Russell, "The Fighter"; Tom Hooper, "The King's Speech"; David Fincher, "The Social Network"; Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, "True Grit"

Best Animated Feature: "How to Train Your Dragon," "The Illusionist," "Toy Story 3"


Best Screenplay: "Another Year," "The Fighter," "Inception," "The Kids Are All Right," "The King's Speech"


Best Adapted Screenplay: "127 Hours," "The Social Network," "Toy Story 3," "True Grit," "Winter's Bone"

Best Foreign Film: "Biutiful," "Dogtooth," "In a Better World," "Incendies," "Outside the Law"

Art Direction: "Alice in Wonderland," Robert Stromberg (Production Design), Karen O'Hara (Set Decoration); "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1," Stuart Craig (Production Design), Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration); "Inception," Guy Hendrix Dyas (Production Design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (Set Decoration); "The King's Speech," Eve Stewart (Production Design), Judy Farr (Set Decoration); "True Grit," Jess Gonchor (Production Design), Nancy Haigh (Set Decoration)

Achievement in Cinematography: "Black Swan," Matthew Libatique; "Inception," Wally Pfister; "The King's Speech," Danny Cohen; "The Social Network," Jeff Cronenweth; "True Grit," Roger Deakins

Achievement in Costume Design: "Alice in Wonderland," Colleen Atwood; "I Am Love," Antonella Cannarozzi; "The King's Speech," Jenny Beavan; "The Tempest," Sandy Powell; "True Grit," Mary Zophres

Best Documentary Feature: "Exit Through the Gift Shop," "Gasland," "Inside Job," "Restrepo," "Waste Land"

Best Documentary Short Subject: "Killing in the Name," "Poster Girl," "Strangers No More," "Sun Come Up," "The Warriors of Quigang"

Achievement in Film Editing: "Black Swan," Andrew Weisblum; "The Fighter," Pamela Martin; "The King's Speech," Tariq Anwar; "127 Hours," Jon Harris; "The Social Network," Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Picture (Original Score): "How to Train Your Dragon," John Powell; "Inception," Hans Zimmer; "The King's Speech," Alexandre Desplat; "127 Hours," A. R. Rahman; "The Social Network," Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Picture (Original Song): "Coming Home" from "Country Strong;" "I See the Light" from "Tangled;" "If I Rise" from "127 Hours;" "We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3"

Best Animated Short Film: "Day and Night," Teddy Newton; "The Gruffalo," Jakob Schuh and Max Lang; "Let's Pollute," Feefwee Boedoe; "The Lost Thing," Shaun Tan and Andrwe Ruhemann; "Madagascar, A Journey Diary," Bastien Dubois

Best Live Action Short: "The Confession," Tanel Toom; "The Crush," Michael Creagh; "God of Love," Luke Matheny; "Na Wewe," Ivan Goldschmidt; "Wish 143," Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Achievement in Sound Editing: "Inception," Richard King; "Toy Story 3," Tom Myers and Michael Silvers; "Tron: Legacy" Gwndolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague; "True Grit," Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey; "Unstoppable," Mark P. Stoeckinger

Achievement in Sound Mixing: "Inception," Lra Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick; "The King's Speech," Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley; "Salt," Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin; "The Social Network," Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten; "True Grit," Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Achievement in Visual Effects: "Alice in Wonderland," Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips; "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1," Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi; "Hereafter," Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell; "Inception," Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb; "Iron Man 2," Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Country Strong

The number one reason I wanted to see this movie is because about half of it is filmed in Nashville. (Big promo for The Stage). Also, I like Gwyneth. So, I went in with low to moderate expectations, and was mostly pleased as a result. The previews don't accurately tell you what it's about (who is having relationships with who,etc) and I don't want to spoil it. But all in all, I liked it. It wasn't what I expected, and it was a lot more like Crazy Heart than I would have guessed. I think Tim McGraw is shaping up to be a fine actor, and Gwen gives a decent performance (not even close to her best, though). Leighton Meester was pretty good in it, but I did not like the young guy, Garrett Hedlund.

After giving it some thought, I realized there were some ways this good movie could have been a great movie. One, get rid of Hedlund entirely. Aside from his fantastic voice, he offered nothing to the story, if anything he watered it down and made it emotionally detached from the viewer. Also, Leighton Meester's fat chin just kept staring at me throughout the entire movie: distracting. But, leave those two things out and it's probably worth a matinee price, if you're interested in it, otherwise just watch Crazy Heart. It has better music, better acting, and a better story. Note, I did enjoy the music in the movie, but it's all country pop.... Also, note, if you don't like country music, don't see this movie.

$ $ $ $

-Emily