What does Christopher Nolan have to do to get a Best Director nomination?
We have no idea.
Here are the Oscar snubs that jumped out at us today:
• Nolan's up for writing Inception, and he's up for Best Picture for producing the epic thriller, but arguably he "lost" his Best Director nod to True Grit's Joel and Ethan Coen.
• Nolan is the only Directors Guild nominee to not rate a Best Director nomination. (Conversely, the Coens are the only non-DGA contenders to rate a joint Best Director nod.)
• For those keeping score at home, Nolan has never been nominated for Best Director. Notably, this is the second time in as many critically acclaimed mega-blockbusters, after Dark Knight, that he's been denied.
• So, let's get this straight: among those in The Fighter's corner, Christian Bale got nominated for playing Mark Wahlberg's brother, Amy Adams got nominated for playing Wahlberg's girlfriend, Melissa Leo got nominated for playing Wahlberg's mom, and Wahlberg himself got nominated for…nothing. As an actor, that is. (Wahlberg could win a Best Picture Oscar for producing the boxing flick.)
• Go ahead, and laugh, but Burlesque was considered a legit contender in the music categories. But, no, the film will not have a chance to repeat its Golden Globes glory at the Oscars: it got nothing.
• In case you or Ricky Gervais were wondering, The Tourist didn't get any nominations, either.
• Was Andrew Garfield the heart of The Social Network? Pretty much. But he (and Justin Timberlake, for that matter) didn't earn enough votes among his peers for the Screen Actors Guild Awards—or the Oscars.
• Other missing-in-action actors include: Ryan Gosling, not up for Blue Valentine; Michael Douglas, not up for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Matt Damon, not up for True Grit; Mila Kunis, not up for Black Swan; and, Julianne Moore, not up for playing Annette Bening's other half in The Kids Are All Right.
• Leonardo DiCaprio didn't get nominated for either Inception or Shutter Island. By this point in awards season, these aren't snubs; they're more of the same.
• The Town wasn't overlooked exactly, but it wasn't the force some figured it might be. It didn't return Ben Affleck to the Oscar field as either a producer, writer or director, and it didn't get anything besides the Jeremy Renner acting nod.
• Despicable Me was a hit. It was well-reviewed. It was not nominated for Animated Feature.
• Black Swan is the only Best Picture nominee without a screenwriting nod. (Mike Leigh's Another Year "stole" its spot in Original Screenplay.)
(Originally published Jan. 25, 2011 at 6:12 a.m. PT)