The Oscar Nominations : Year's Biggest Awards

The Academy Award (informally known as the Oscar) is an accolade by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is one of the most prominent award ceremonies in the world and is televised live in more than 200 countries annually. It is also the oldest award ceremony in the media; its equivalents, the Grammy Awards (for music), Emmy Awards (for television), and Tony Awards (for theatre) are modeled after the Academy.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself was conceived by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio boss Louis B. Mayer.All in all, we're pretty happy about this year's crop of Academy Award nominees. While we we're still scratching our heads as to why Andrew Garfield didn't at least get a nomination for "The Social Network," there were enough other exciting—albeit expected—announcements to keep us satisfied.

The Oscar Nominations Categories:

Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
James Franco in “127 Hours”
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”

Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

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 Direction
Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”
David Fincher for “The Social Network”
Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech”
David O. Russell for “The Fighter”

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 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

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)

Animated Feature
“How to Train Your Dragon”
“The Illusionist”
“Toy Story 3″

As last year’s Best Supporting Actress winner for Precious, Mo’Nique announced this year’s Best Actress contenders from Beverly Hills, some were surprised to hear Michelle Williams’ name for Blue Valentine. As for the male talent, there were hoots and hollers in the room when she revealed Javier Bardem’s somewhat unexpected nomination for Biutiful, which is also a nominee in the Foreign Feature Film category. The supporting categories were more predictable and include this year’s youngest nominee, True Grit’s 14-year-old breakout star Hailee Steinfeld.

But for every pleasantly surprised nominee, there are others this morning who were likely disappointed. While one middle-schooler’s dream is coming true, The Kids Are All Right’s Julianne Moore was left out of the running while her co-stars, Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo will be competing for awards. Some believe Ben Affleck’s The Town—for which Jeremy Renner (who was a Best Actor nominee for Hurt Locker last year) is up for Actor in a Supporting Role—was unfairly left out of the Best Picture and Directing categories. Also missing from the latter list was the man behind the summer blockbuster Inception, Christopher Nolan. The film is, however, up for Best Picture.

But perhaps the most shocking was the fact that Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman, a documentary about the failure of America's public schools, was nowhere to be seen in the list of nominees.