16th Annual Critics' Choice Award Nominations

After yestserday's onslaught of picks for best of the year from critic circles and associations across the nation, all of which mostly praised David Fincher's "The Social Network" as the best of 2010, today we get a list of important nominations for the 16th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards which is organized by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. These awards have become a better predictor for what we're going to see for the Oscar nominations than even the Golden Globes.

And so, here's a run-down of the nominations for the 2011 Critics' Choice Movie Awards, which were led by Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" with a record-breaking total of 12 nominations. Close behind with 11 each were "True Grit" and "The King's Speech" followed by "Inception" with 10 and "The Social Network" with nine.

The nominees for Best Picture were "127 Hours," "Black Swan," "The Fighter," "Inception," "The King's Speech," "The Social Network," "The Town," "Toy Story 3," "True Grit" and "Winter's Bone." This list mirrors the 10 Best Picture nominees we'll see at this year's Oscars except for one glaring error: "The Kids Are All Right." How could a snub this large happen for such a deserving film? This is truly discomforting for the film's Best Picture chances at the Oscars.

This category got narrowed down by the Best Director nods which were Darren Aronofsky for "Black Swan," Danny Boyle for "127 Hours," Joel and Ethan Coen for "True Grit," David Fincher for "The Social Network" and Christopher Nolan for "Inception." Again, Lisa Cholodenko for "The Kids Are All Right" is absent.

"Blue Valentine," now happily R-rated, got some love with a Best Actor nomination for Ryan Gosling. Joining him were Jeff Bridges for "True Grit," Robert Duvall for "Get Low," Jesse Eisenberg for "The Social Network," Colin Firth for "The King's Speech" and James Franco for "127 Hours." The win could either go to Firth or Eisenberg as both have been getting considerable attention all season.

More love for "Blue Valentine" as Michelle Williams got nominated for Best Actress along with Annette Bening for "The Kids Are All Right," Nicole Kidman for "The Rabbit Hole," Jennifer Lawrence for "Winter's Bone," Natalie Portman for "Black Swan," and as an amazingly pleasant surprise, Noomi Rapace for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Finally that astounding actress gets some recognition for her amazing work. Considering the exuding love for "Black Swan" with the nominations, I predict a rightful win for Portman here.

The category of Best Supporting Actor tossed in a few twists with the frontrunner Christian Bale for "The Fighter" predicted to win. With him were my personal favorite, Andrew Garfield for "The Social Network," Jeremy Renner for "The Town," Sam Rockwell for "Conviction," Mark Ruffalo for "The Kids Are All Right" and Geoffrey Rush for "The King's Speech." The fact that Rockwell, Garfield and Ruffalo all slipped in there gives them great hope for the Oscars, which will be an excellent addition to the proceedings.

Mila Kunis got nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her sultry work in "Black Swan." Interesting to note, however, that she got nominated over both Vincent Cassel and Barbara Hershey. Nonetheless, a worthy nomination. Joining her were Amy Adams for "The Fighter," Helena Bonham Carter for "The King's Speech," Melissa Leo for "The Fighter," the newcomer Hailee Steinfeld for "True Grit," which gives her some Oscar momentum, and the actress who has been getting the most attention in this category so far, Jacki Weaver for the Australian drama "Animal Kingdom."

These awards also have the odd categories of Best Comedy and Best Action Movie.

The Best Comedy nominees were "Cyrus," "Date Night," "Easy A," "Get Him to the Greek," "I Love You Phillip Morris" and "The Other Guys."

The Best Action Movie nominees were "Inception," "Kick-Ass," "Red," "The Town" and "Unstoppable."

My question: where is "The Kids Are All Right" at least for comedy? Another huge snub for the film.

Best Foreign Language Film nominees were "Biutiful," "I Am Love" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." It's disappointing to note that all three of these will more than likely be absent from the Oscar's nominees for this category.

It's refreshing to see that something other than "The Social Network," although entirely worthy, got some recognition. These awards have also introduced new faces to the list of possible nominees for the Oscars including Andrew Garfield, Mila Kunis, Noomi Rapace, Mark Ruffalo and Hailee Steinfeld. But geez, let's get "The Kids Are All Right" back in the picture please.

Go here for the entire list of nominees for the 2011 Critics' Choice Movie Awards and find out the winners on Friday, January 14, 2011 at 9:00 p.m. on VH1.

And stay tuned tomorrow for the announcement of the 68th Annual Golden Globe Award nominations!