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Precious garners six Oscar nominations ((AP Photo/Lionsgate, Anne Marie Fox)
Executive produced by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, the movie Precious garnered six Academy Award nominations.
The nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced this morning in Los Angeles. Leading the nominees were Avatar and The Hurt Locker with nine nominations a piece, so six nominations for Precious is not too shabby.
Precious is nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year along with Avatar, The Blind Side, District Nine, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, Up, and Up in the Air. This is the first time the Academy has nominated ten films in this category as opposed to the five films of the past. Jess Cagle, managing editor of Entertainment Weekly magazine, appeared on CBS's The Early Show directly and speculated the change was due to the Academy's desire to include main-stream films and increase ratings.
Mo'Nique wins Golden Globe for Precious
(AP Photo/NBC, Paul Drinkwater)
Also on The Early Show, Academy Award nominee for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Mo'Nique phoned in from Atlanta, Georgia after she received the exciting news,
I'm very honored and grateful they recognized the performance, but we didn't do the project with the feeling of, 'This is going to get us an award.' We did the project with the feeling of 'Oh my God, this will change lives.'"
Mo'Nique has been tearing up with awards circut already winning the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for her portrayal of Precious' abusive mother, Mary Jones. She is a strong favorite to take the Oscar as well.
Gabourey Sidibe
(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe is nominated for her performance of the title role in Precious. What a way to make her acting debut! Gabourney is up against Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Carey Mulligan (An Education), and Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Not bad company to say the least. Meryl and Sandra are the favorites for this category.
Lee Daniels
(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Lee Daniels is the second African American nominated for Best Director. The first was John Singleton for Boyz in the Hood in 1991. His category includes directors James Cameron (Avatar), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), and Jason Reitman (Up in the Air). The favorites are the once married couple James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow.
Best Adapted Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher) and Best Achievement in Film Editing (Joe Klotz) round out the six Precious nominations. Geoffrey Fletcher adapted the screenplay from Sapphire's beloved 1996 novel, Push.
The Oscars will be handed out on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The star-studded event will be hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.
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