Award archives...

[EricJ]

Considering the PGA nominations, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs may not be nominated either, with 9 taking its place. (Despite the PGA snub, though, I still think Cloudy will be nominated for an Oscar.)

We've got seven good front-runners for five nominations this year, and in the final tally, Cloudy just AIN'T ONE OF THEM.
(No, seriously--I am the only one, aren't I, who sank in his seat and expected bad slacker-humor the minute "A Film By A Lot Of People" came onscreen and got it, no matter how much low-rent "Dad doesn't understand!" Pixar 101 they threw at us to pretend it was All Cuddly 'N Stuff?...What Kool-Aid was I not drinking at the screening I went to??)

We know it's Fox, Up and Frog for the win, and it's just going to be such a pitched battle between 9 and Coraline for the last two spots (9 looks smooth but Coraline has Nightmare/Xmas nostalgia and a plot) that, yes, what does Ponyo have to do to get its usually free nomination around here?

[Dacey]

The thing that's strongly going against "9" is that a lot of people didn't "get it." While many admired the film for it's visual style, there were a lot of people who said that the story was weak.

Compare the reviews overall for "9" with those for "Cloudy" and you'll see that the latter generally got more praise. I think that "Cloudy" has a much better shot at a nomination.

It's also got the Golden Globe nom, and the Critics Choice nom, too. "9" and "Ponyo" are nowhere to be seen at those awards.

[eddievalient]

And yet, in all likelyhood, in ten years, "9" will routinely be called "underrated" or a "cult classic".

[EricJ]

Because Tim burton direc...er, attached his name to it.
Me, I'm still trying to figure out just what the heck exactly happened, or who was battling who. Good animation, though.

[eddievalient]

I've not seen it yet, but I tend to enjoy strange movies, so "9" is probably right up my alley like Coraline was.

[EricJ]

Just rented it the other week--
And like all indie shorts upgraded to feature-length, the story starts in medias res (so they can get as much of the original short out of the way early), doesn't bother to explain until the middle third of the movie, and then finishes up with a completely different popcorn plot than the short, which leaves us feeling as if we've watched two different movies.

I'd be more specific, but again, as I'm still not sure what exactly happened in it, I can't.
The stop-motion/CGI was spiffy enough to be a contender, though, even if the marketing was throwing itself a bit too much on Nightmare-nostalgic Tim-boiz to say "It's bold ADULT animation, not that kids' stuff you probably hate!"
(Although that snake-oil sale been its one critical driving force so far.)

[Dan]

The Golden Globes have passed.

Up was the big winner as far as animation goes. The Pixar film won The Best Animated Feature award as well as the Best Original Score award for Michael Giacchino.

Avatar cemented itself as a serious Oscar contender, winning Best Picutre - Drama and Best Director for James Cameron.

[estefan]

Best Original Score was deserved, but I would have preferred The Princess and the Frog winning Best Animated Feature.

[EricJ]

The Golden Globes have passed.
Avatar cemented itself as a serious Oscar contender, winning Best Picutre - Drama and Best Director for James Cameron.

How, by winning a Golden Globe?

People...it's only in the one month before the nominations that we ever take the GG's with holy reverence as prognosticator of the mysterious future--
The other 11 months of the year we giggle them off as the artificial plastic-wrapped why-pay-more discount "Do-It-Yourself Awards" given out by a shadowy group of pop-obsessed industry-town celebrity-worshippers of no identified employment or membership...
The one awards that every year reminds us that it's not just "about the show", if the awards themselves don't mean a darn squat.

Put it this way: Avatar does not deserve an Oscar, and likely won't if we were to assume it is to be given by the same organization who gave one to Amadeus, Oliver, Bridge on the River Kwai, and even Titanic...
But we KNEW Avatar would win a Golden Globe the second it was nominated. And how?--Some of us can predict the future, too.

[Dacey]

Eric, I have no idea what you're even talking about here.

Of course the Globes win is going to boost "Avatar's" chances at the Oscars. Especially since there are ten nominations this year.

[EricJ]

Which is pretty much the only reason, and if we had ten nominations last year, "Dark Knight" would've been nominated but wouldn't have gotten Picture either.
(And of course, the only reason we have ten Oscar nominations this year is that the Academy heard that "Up" might get a Best Picture GG, and thought, "Gee, it must be their having a Best Comedy category that did it!...We'd better get one of our own, too!" Like everything this year, it was all for the ONE goal.)

Point was, used to be, a few years ago, say "Golden Globes" and you automatically got Pia Zadora jokes. Most people today don't even remember what that was about, but lemme tell ya, it WASN'T about public credibility.
During the 90's, it got a reputation as the awards show that Ted Turner always showed because he couldn't get the "real" ones, and the guilt-by-association got the GG's giggled off as "the Goodwill Games of movie awards".

Nowadays, we all spend one month in January pretending the GG's are "real" awards because NBC airs them instead of Turner (because they couldn't get the Oscars either), but...that ain't the way I heerd it, Johnny.
Like Cameron fans wishfully hoping Avatar would be a good movie before it came out, we have fans pretending the GG's are "real" awards indicators before the Oscar nominations come out (even though we snub and ignore the GG's all through February till November)....It's fun to pretend, isn't it?

[Dan]

Um, the Globes have been well regarded as being one of the key pre-Oscar awards that get the buzz generated. Is it the best indicator of who wins the Oscars? No, of course not. But winning the Golden Globe puts the film in the running. For it to be the favorite, it needs wins from other awards as well like BAFTA, the LA Film Critics, and the Producer's Guild. And even then the Academy could still always shake things up.

I only said Avatar became a serious contender, I didn't say it was the favorite. The favorites going into the Globes were Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker. Avatar's win only widened the Best Picture race.

[American_dog_2008]

Fantastic Mr. Fox should had won over Up!

[James]

http://animatedviews.com/2010/2010-oscar-nominations/

The Oscar nominations are out and Disney/Pixar’s Up became just the second animated film in history to be nominated for Best Picture. Avatar also picked up a nomination there along with 8 others. The nominees for Best Animated Feature are: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, Secret of the Kells, and Up.

Other animated nods:
• Original Score: Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up
• Original Song: Almost There and Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog
• Sound Editing: Up
• Shorts: French Roast, Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, The Lady and the Reaper, Logorama, A Matter of Loaf and Death
• Visual Effects: Avatar, District 9, Star Trek

[Meg]

That's fantastic news! Up really deserved a nom there, really happy to see that it's gotten it. I'm also really happy to see Secret of the Kells among the Best Animated Feature nominations, it's a beautiful film.

Let's hope that with Up given a Best Picture nomination, more animated films will be given a shot at the award in the future as well!

UPD: Just saw that District 9 also got a Best Picture nom - that's also great to hear!