Best 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

Best Original Song

“Coming Home” from Country Strong, Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from Tangled, Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from 127 Hours, Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3, Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Animated Short Film

Day & Night, A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo, A Magic Light Pictures Production, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute, A Geefwee Boedoe Production, Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing, A Passion Pictures Australia Production, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), A Sacrebleu Production, Bastien Dubois

Best Live Action Short Film

The Confession, A National Film and Television School Production, Tanel Toom
The Crush, A Purdy Pictures Production, Michael Creagh
God of Love, A Luke Matheny Production, Luke Matheny
Na Wewe, A CUT! Production, Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143, A Swing and Shift Films/Union Pictures Production, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Achievement in Sound Editing

Inception, Richard King
Toy Story 3, Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
Tron: Legacy, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit, Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable, Mark P. Stoeckinger

Achievement in Sound Mixing

Inception, Lora 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

Adapted Screenplay

127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3, Screenplay by Michael Arndt. Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit, Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone, Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Original Screenplay

Another Year, Written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception, Written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right, Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech, Screenplay by David Seidler

So that’s it.

Not a lot of surprises, frankly, but there never are. Christopher Nolan is probably feeling a little bit disappointed this morning, and rightfully so.

Based on all of the awards, the movies leading the Best Picture pack are The King’s Speech, The Social Network, and The Fighter. True Grit and Black Swan are not too far behind, but Inception will have to pull a Driving Miss Daisy in order to take home the ultimate prize. Not likely at this point.

Still, it’s important to remember that the Oscars are a Democratic process. It’s a vote – not some secret cabal of people deciding in a smoke-filled back room somewhere.

At the end of the day, it’s an honor to be nominated, so congratulations to all of the nominees.

What do you think?