'King's Speech' Leads Oscar Field In A Year With Somewhat Less To Squabble About

Last year's Academy Award nominations were contentious in some quarters — making room for 10 Best Picture nominees led to claims that some didn't belong there, while others argued that worthy pictures (everything from Star Trek to A Single Man) had been unfairly overlooked.
There will be less of a flap about this year's nominations, which went largely as expected this morning. Those 10 Best Picture slots went to 127 Hours, The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, Black Swan, The Social Network, Inception, The Fighter, Winter's Bone, Toy Story 3, and True Grit. Still, for a set of nominations that delivered so few surprises, they managed to do a reasonably good job of recognizing very fine films and actors.
The King's Speech led with 12 nominations, including major-category nods for its screenplay; actors Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, and Geoffrey Rush; and its director, Tom Hooper. Behind it were True Grit with 10 nominations, and Inception and The Social Network, both with eight.
Also making a strong showing was the Boston boxing film The Fighter, which had seven nominations, all in prominent categories — three for its acting (Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, and Amy Adams, all in supporting categories — nothing for lead Mark Wahlberg), one for its screenplay, one for its director, and one for its editing, in addition to Best Picture.