Oscar nominations dominated by The King’s Speech, True Grit

The King’s Speech – a historical drama with the Oscar-friendly theme of a man overcoming his disability – is the darling of the 2011 Academy Awards.

The film, about the true story of how King George VI dealt with his stutter, was nominated Tuesday for 12 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and a Best Actor nomination for the likely winner, Colin Firth.

True Grit, the Coen Brothers remake of a 1969 John Wayne film, was second with 10 nominations. The film, entirely overlooked by the Golden Globe Awards, also flew under the radar of critics’ awards and is just one of several major surprises in this year’s Oscar list.

The Facebook film The Social Network, the early front-runner, and the sci-fi mind-twister Inception, tied with eight nominations each.

Among the major stories in this year’s nominations:

The Canadian film Incendies, directed by Quebec’s Denis Villeneuve, made the final list for best foreign film.

Javier Bardem was nominated for best actor for his role in the Mexican drama Biutiful – another foreign film candidate – taking a spot that was thought to be a toss-up between two Canadian-connected actors: Ryan Gosling for his performance as a troubled husband in Blue Valentine, and Paul Giamatti as the hard-drinking ladies’ man in the Canada-Italy co-production of Barney’s Version.

Winter’s Bone, a low-budget indie movie about a girl hunting for her father in the secretive Ozarks that hadn’t been given much chance at Oscar glory, won four nominations, including best picture, best actress (for Jennifer Lawrence as the young woman) and best supporting actor (for John Hawkes as Teardrop, a dangerous mountain man she encounters.)

Toy Story 3 was for nominated for best animated film and best picture. It tied the critical favourite Black Swan with five nominations overall.

In the best supporting actress category, the academy nominated 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld for her role as the feisty young girl who hires gunslinger Jeff Bridges in True Grit. Steinfeld is in almost every scene of the film, but her studio campaigned for a supporting actress nomination rather than a leading actress. Her competition includes little-known Australian actress Jacki Weaver for her role in the crime drama Animal Kingdom.

The surprise inclusions make for surprise snubs as well: In the supporting actor category Andrew Garfield, who was expected to be nominated for his role as the co-creator of Facebook in The Social Network; as best supporting actress, Mila Kunis as Natalie Portman’s rival in Black Swan; Julianne Moore didn’t join her The Kids Are All Right co-star Annette Bening in the best actress category; in the directing category, Christopher Nolan for Inception.

The hot-buzz documentary Waiting For Superman didn’t make the list, but in the foreign film category, the academy included the Greek film Dogtooth – a surreal story about a man who keeps his children locked in the house and unaware of the true nature of the world – which reportedly had a disastrous screening for the selection committee.

Winners will be announced on Feb. 27.

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 Director

Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)

David O. Russell (The Fighter)

Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

David Fincher (The Social Network)

Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)

Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening (The Kids are All Right)

Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)

Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem (Biutiful)

Jeff Bridges (True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)

Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

James Franco (127 Hours)

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams (The Fighter)

Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech)

Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Actor in a Supporting Role

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 Animated Feature

How to Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

Toy Story 3

Best Adapted Screenplay

127 Hours (Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle)

The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)

Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich)

True Grit (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)

Winter’s Bone

Best Original Screenplay

Another Year

The Fighter (Paul Attanasio, Lewis Colich, Eric Johnson, Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy)

Inception (Christopher Nolan)

The Kids are All Right (Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko)

The King’s Speech (David Seidler)

Best Foreign Language Film

Biutiful (Mexico)

Dogtooth (Greece)

In a Better World (Denmark)

Incendies (Canada)

Outside the Law (Algeria)