Oscar reaction: 'King's Speech' takes lead in awards race

Oscar voters love stately British movies, as proven by "The King's Speech" collecting 12 Academy Award nominations on Tuesday.

Even though "The Social Network" had taken nearly every critic's prize around the country, the feel-good movie about stuttering royalty is now the official front-runner in the Best Picture race.

"The King's Speech" is definitely one of the year's best movies, but its category domination proves more than ever how traditional and "safe" the Academy can be with their selections. A nomination for Best Sound Mixing? Really?

At least the expansion of 10 nominees in the Best Picture race made for some unique choices that covered all spectrums of the year's film highlights. "Toy Story 3" represents another solid year for animation, "Inception" takes both the sci-fi and blockbuster spot, and smaller pictures like "127 Hours," "Winter's Bone" and "The Kids Are All Right" have been given a bigger and much deserved spotlight.

The Best Surprise

Character-actor John Hawkes snuck into the Best Supporting Actor race with his haunting turn in "Winter's Bone." The movie works in large part because of his presence, and his performance helped to power young Jennifer Lawrence's work, who earned a Best Actress nomination.

Most Glaring Snubs

• Even though he collected nominations in the Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay categories, "Inception" visionary Christopher Nolan was ignored again in the Best Director category in favor of the more-actor driven "King's Speech" and "The Fighter." "True Grit" directors Joel and Ethan Coen are recent winners in the category, so it wouldn't have been so bad to leave them out either.

• No love for Ben Affleck and "The Town." The inclusion of "127 Hours" and "Winter's Bone" meant there just wasn't room for the crime epic in Best Picture. Affleck also missed out in a tough Screenplay category. Only supporting player Jeremy Renner managed a nomination for the film.

• Robert Duvall gave one of the best performances of his career in the underseen "Get Low." He lost his spot in the Best Actor race to Javier Bardem of "Biutiful."

• School reform documentary "Waiting for 'Superman,'" widely considered a frontrunner, was left out of the Best Documentary race. The rest of the lineup is quite good, however, with "Inside Job," "Restrepo" and "Exit Through the Gift Shop" leading the charge.

Prediction Results

My predictions from last week were well in line with what happened. I nailed 10/10 in the Best Picture race, 5/5 in Best Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay, 2/3 in Best Animated Feature, and 4/5 in Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay.

As for who will win, look for "Inception" to take a lot of the technical awards, and "The King's Speech" and "The Social Network" splitting the top categories. Christian Bale has a lock on Best Supporting Actor, Colin Firth is rocking Best Actor, and it's a fight between Natalie Portman and Annette Bening for Best Actress. Best Supporting Actress is wide open, maybe with Hailee Steinfeld of "True Grit" having a slight advantage.

The Academy Awards are Sunday, Feb. 27, hosted by Anne Hathaway and nominee James Franco.

Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com. Read more pop culture commentary at www.normdogentertainment.com.