Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Oakland's Jack London Inn Called "Second Dirtiest Hotel" In America

Oakland, California's Jack London Inn could use better publicity than this, but at least it's getting noticed. This YouTube video presents the hotel in a condition that reportedly is far afield from normal, which is to say "clean."



Gawker called the place right across the railroad tracks from Jack London Square the "Second Dirtiest Hotel" in America.

Moreover, the blog post includes an at best unflattering and at worst horrifying example of what a guest is likely to witness if they stay at the JL Inn:


Because the Jack London Inn has that mirrored film on the windows, I didn't notice the 4 VERY salty cops in the lobby conducting an investigation of what sounded like a murderous brawl until I was standing among them in the cramped lobby. A person I inferred was a WITNESS was handcuffed to a chair. The cop was basically telling a nervous young man in a ghetto fab ensemble, "Look, if we take in we'll have to process you for this huge, no-bail, extradition warrant out for your arrest. Or, we can take you in the back and you can give us GOOD INFO about what happened up there and you can handle your business before you get arrested again, 'cuz next time you go away, it's gonna be for a long time." I was kind of surprised they would be doing this in a publicly accessible area, but they seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see them. This shit was straight out of "Training Day."

That should give the managers and owners of the JL Inn cause for concern.  But maybe they just don't have the cash for improvements?  Regardless, the hotel needs to clean up its image.

The Jack London Inn is a great example of why we have and need the California Redevelopment Agencies California Governor Jerry Brown wants to wrong-headedly get rid of. The area's blighted and Oaklanders know it.   The JL Inn needs to be declared a safety hazard, sold, and rebuilt.




U-Cubed Response to Obama's State of the Union Address



Here is the U-Cubed response to Obama's State of the Union Address yesterday. It is short and directly to the point (so unlike my own 99er response on YouTube earlier today).

From the U-Cubed Website:

Last night President Barack Obama issued a BURN NOTICE for jobless Americans. They are to remain in limbo — without jobs, without relief, without hope — until long after his term ends. Their careers, credit, savings and homes are forfeit. And the government he leads will do little to alleviate their distress.

For the 99ers whose benefits are exhausted and the 62 percent of the jobless who never qualified for unemployment, President Barack Obama had neither kind words nor new policies. In fact, he spoke as if they did not exist.

As a result, millions of jobless Americans were left to their own devices. Now they must rely on friends and family to simply survive. And survive they will. But they will never forget nor will they forgive the BURN NOTICE issued during this State of the Union.

Acting Executive Director,
Rick Sloan

Wow - very well put!




[The donation button below is for Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]





A 99ers Response to the State of the Union Address - Offered by Paladinette

The following is a 99ers response to the State of the Union Address - offered by Paladinette. Nobody asked me to do this, but if Michele Bachmann can give the Tea Party response, I have certainly earned the right to express my take on what I see as an entirely ineffective, inadequate SOTU address. Besides I think I have proven myself up to the task of speaking intelligently on at least a few subjects so that puts me just a peg or two above Bachmann (even if I am blonde).

Now, before anyone gets their knickers in a knot, PLEASE NOTE: as the title suggests - this is just one 99ers’ response to Obama’s SOTU speech and is NOT intended in ANY WAY to speak for all 99ers. With that said, lets get to it:

Well if is true, as Obama said at the beginning of last night’s SOTU address, that we are all part of one American Family - then I guess we 99ers are the red-haired step children or just outright illegitimate ******* off spring whose very existence must be denied at all costs.

Personally I could care less about the stock market doing well - where are the jobs Mr. President? How are the 99ers who have been without UI benefits for nearly a year - with NO JOBS IN SIGHT supposed to survive the winter even? By refusing to talk about the 99ers or any of the shameful 45 other millions of Americans living in abject poverty, you once again proved that Washington DC only cares about the rich - and the poor be damned.

America will not have the largest most productive economy in the world for long unless things change very fast and the Belt Way leadership finally puts Main street ahead of Wall Street and corporate interests NOW!

Well we cannot prosper when we do not have enough money for even food and shelter Mr. President.

America’s greatness has never been about prosperity for the elite or only the few. America’s greatness has always been because of the potential for prosperity of all her citizens.

The 99er Nation can’t see to 2015 or to 2037 we need help NOW. We want a future - we want to be part of America’s success as we have always been prior to this non-declared depression. All we have ever asked is for a fighting chance to survive this jobless recovery and thrive by re-entering the work force. Being forced into poverty has ripped away our American dream and being ignored by you and Congress has destroyed our faith in Washington completely.

Preparing 100K teachers to step in as the baby boomers retire is admirable but Washington DC sits idly by watching state after state lay off tens of thousands of teachers on a regular basis. We need more than idle talk and meaningless rhetoric. We need action and help from our Government. We need a commitment to the well being of all American citizens hurting so bad for years now as Washington wastes time and ignores the suffering of her most vulnerable people in favor of the wealthy campaign donators.

It is great to have a vision for where America will be in five,15 or 25 years, but too many 99ers do not know where they will be next month or even 15 days from now. I did not hear anything which leads me to believe You or your administration give a damn about the millions of suffering 99ers you threw under the bus to get your deal with the devil done last December.

If you hate the mistreatment of those with pre-existing conditions so much then why can’t you help those with the pre-existing condition of Unemployment past the 99 week mark? Remember most of these folks have been out of work for over 3 years, as there have been many gaps in our UI benefits over the 4 tiers now in place - unlike those who have more recently become unemployed. Yet you helped those who were hurting the least and left those of us hurting the worst to fend for ourselves. May God forgive you for helping the top 3% richest Americans get wealthier and leaving the 99ers to die in the streets.

Why is it the only tough job you weren't willing to tackle in your speech was the tragic plight of the 99er Nation?

I do not know about you but I find nothing funny about smoked salmon - especially because nobody in the 99er Nation has been able to afford that for quite a long time.

I heard you Mr.Obama talk about restoring faith in the US government? Well faith requires trust and trust takes unwavering honesty. To that end, how about being honest about the true unemployment rate and the number of 99ers to start with eh? That might be a good beginning toward your stated goal Mr. President. Just saying.

Thank goodness Mr. President you made it a point to talk about the debt our nation owes to our sons and daughters in uniform, but only to tout your DADT victory and boost your own ego.

Gay marriage is only a priority to about 15% of the population of this country. Unemployment is effecting 1 in 6 families in America. So why not address the elephant in the room sir? Isn’t that why we pay you the big bucks? You seemed more worried about the immigrants getting a fair shake than hurting 99ers or other Americans barely hanging on and losing what little they have left. We should be your priority but you act as if by ignoring us we will just go away. I fear you have sorely misjudged the spirit, fight and anger of the millions you pretend do not exist. Continue to do so at your own political peril, as we can see to it you have only 1 more SOTU address to make next year, before the 2012 election.

I was only listening to the speech, not watching it as I typed these replies at my computer. Can anybody tell me if the Speaker cried during the speech? On second thought, never mind - I really don’t care to tell you the truth. 99ers and their families cry themselves to sleep every night all over this land and those tears are real.

Yes Obama, we do big things! We solve the big problems but we cannot solve the issues we refuse to admit need resolution.

To those inspired by the mention of jobs being a priority to Washington last night, just remember that Obama’s 2010 SOTU speech had the same theme and NOTHING was done all the rest of last year to make that goal a reality either.

So the President believes that the State of the Union is STRONG. Hmmmm well sir the State of the Union SUCKS for the 99er Nation, you know - the millions of UI exhaustees who you decided to ignore once again last night. I am now officially ashamed that I voted for YOU and that makes more disconsolate than I have words to adequately express....I feel like playing Speaker and having a good long weep. Food stamps do not allow you to purchase toilet paper - did ya know? So Anyone have a tissue?



[The donation button below is for Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]




President Obama's State of the Union Address



President Obama gave his State of the Union Address last night. All members sat with one another regardless of which political party he or she belonged to: John Kerry was sitting beside John McCain for example. It was a bit ironic that the two were both losing presidential candidates.

Obama gave a very memorable speech which really showed that he was trying to bring Republicans and Democrats together.

Some people on Facebook turned the State of the Union Address into a drinking game by taking a drink every time President Obama said the word "jobs" which ended up being 22 times - others took a drink every time members of Congress clapped - which was about 80 times.

But more importantly than that the President truly showed a yearning for bipartisanship and support between the parties, and it was really a powerful message that came across.

Of course the GOP was critical afterwards, like always - but it's undoubtable that the President spoke quite eloquently and spoke of issues that were truly important to both parties; creating more jobs, pushing for clean energy, the need for fiscal responsibility, etc.

CNN's poll shows that the majority believes that President Obama gave a good speech, but that is only based on those who visited and voted at CNN.com.

Now people must wait and see how things change in lieu of this speech.

Jersey Shore Shoots Season 4 in Italy




This this not a joke. According to CNN the Jersey Shore cast is going to shoot season 4 in Italy - season 4? It seemed like this would be the final season, but surprisingly there is more Jersey Shore to be watched.

CNN

Of course - it's not clear how many of the cast members actually speak Italian, but maybe that won't matter.

After the State of the Union yesterday this news may not be what America needs, but it will definitely bring a lot of controversy.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Justin Bieber Gives Hailee Steinfeld Oscar Nomination Congrats On Twitter

Hailee Steinfeld, who gave a bofo performance playing the tough and single-minded teenager / adult Mattie Ross in The Coen Brothers remake of the classic True Grit, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the 83rd Academy Awards on Tuesday.

Steinfeld's nomination triggered this tweet from singing icon Justin Bieber:


justinbieber Justin Bieber
met at the Globes and she is super talented. CONGRATS to Hailee Steinfeld for being 14 and getting nominated for an OSCAR for TRUE GRIT!
12 hours ago
Top Tweet


As well as a number of congratulatory tweets from the Twitterverse.

Hailee Steinfeld herself just got on Twitter, and is getting the hang of things, she didn't send a tweet indicating how she felt one way or another. But it's widely reported that she actually dreamed about getting an Oscar and now she's one more major step closer to the realization of that dream.

For an actor that doesn't have a long history, Steinfeld impressively held her own on the screen with heavyweights like Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Lucas. For someone who was nominated as Best Supporting Actress, the film appeared to be about her as the lead actor male or female.

Steinfeld carried True Grit as much as Jeff Bridges did, but the reason for her designation was due to what The Coen Brothers and her parents felt was her age and lack of experience.

Look for that issue to be a thing of the past, especially if Steinfeld wins on Oscar Sunday.



State Of The Union Address 2011 Dominates Twitter, CNN Fails MSNBC Soars

President Barack Obama's State Of The Union Address 2011 was a rousing success, as Democrats and Republicans sat together in an effective show of togetherness, and Obama set the right tone for "Winning The Future."

The speech was more than politically effective, it dominated social networks, especially Twitter. The SOTU represented, at one point, seven of the top ten Twitter Trends. The most popular of them was #sotu and "Nation Builders," referring to Obama's call to think of American Teachers as just that.


robertamiller Robert A. Miller
Characterizing teachers as "nation builders" is excellent positioning. As a country, we need to build on this. It's a "what counts" factor.
1 minute ago

KeithTrivitt Keith Trivitt
W/ a brother who is a teacher, I was very happy to see Obama say it's time to treat teachers w/ more respect & as "nation builders" #sotu
16 minutes ago

Fabulouskb KBoo
Teachers are Nation Builders!!!
23 minutes ago

MMcKone Mariel Leonard
@DavidJandura is schooling USAID in twitter RT Nation builders in school? Tweet that part USAID! #SOTU
23 minutes ago

jnetk0z Jeanette Kozlowski
RT @loriguffey: #Obama: treat teachers as the nation builders they are. reward good, no excuses for bad. #ovation #SOTU
24 minutes ago


CNN Can Do Better, MSNBC was great

The State Of The Union Address was excellent, but CNN's after-speech coverage was terrible. They had the usual talking heads, but when Erick Erickson went on a "well I'm conservative" rant taking us back to President Grant and issuing mindless musings about failed government-private partnerships, I changed the channel to MSNBC.

What MSNBC provides that CNN does not are interviews with elected officials after the speech, fielding questions from their pundits, including Eugene Robinson, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, and Chris Matthews, who looked as if he was upset that he wasn't in the center chair that Maddow occupied. That aside, the MSNBC approach was more effective and less annoying than CNN's "ranting heads" strategy.

Chris Nolan Academy Awards Snub Ignites Twitter - Inception Director

Chris Nolan, the producer and director of Inception, a terrific scf-fi movie starring Leonardo DeCaprio about how a specialist takes over a person's dreams and inserts new ones, was snubbed in the nominations for "Best Director." The slight has caused Twitter to explode in protest, and "Chris Nolan" has been a Top Trend Topic on Twitter for four hours, or since 6:30 AM PDT (It's now 10:24 AM as of this writing.)

What's confusing is that while Nolan's not up for Best Director, Inception is one of the Academy Awards Best Picture and Best Screenplay candidates.

Why is this? It may be that, while Inception is certainly an original work, it's also about 24 minutes longer than it should be.

The climactic ending scene featuring the cast working to get out of a "dream hole" five layers deep as the truck they're in is in free fall from a bridge to the water below, could have been cut down in some way. That may be the issue, but even then, it's a small one that reasonable people can disagree on.

Still, some of the Twitter tweets are worthy of awards themselves:

PosterRev Poster Revolution 
113 Retweets
Guess Chris Nolan didn't plant the idea inside The Oscar's board members' mind to nominate himself as the Best Director. #oscars
1 hour ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

colliderfrosty Steven Weintraub
don't understand how Chris Nolan didn't get a nomination for directing INCEPTION. Did they see the movie?
4 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

NotChrisRock Chris Rock
It's okay though, Chris Nolan is the director the Academy Awards deserve, but not the one it needs right now #TheDarkKnight
2 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

feliciaday Felicia Day
by murat__bal
Chris Nolan didn't get a director nomination?!! ARE YOU KIDDING?!
13 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

bookshopgirl212 Celia Tallis
Feels like Chris Nolan catched the Hitchcock curse-- oh well. he at least was nominated a few times.
3 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

daviddimiele David DiMiele
by chfiv10
Wouldn't wanna be an Academy voter right now. Chris Nolan is coming for your dreams.
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply


Oh, and here's mine:

zennie62 Zennie Abraham
Alert: Chris Nolan to hijack dreams of American TV audience on #Oscar Academy Awards night. Inception to win Best Picture, Best Director
7 seconds ago




99ers Submit Your Questions to Obama Now


All 99ers are urged to submit your video questions to Obama now, either via YouTube or in text at Interview with Obama

If selected for response, Obama will answer your question on January 27, 2011 via the YouTube Channel worldview http://www.youtube.com/worldview

My question submitted today was basically: "99ers are dying every day NO JOBS to take had no money for 11 months. We go hungry and homeless every day! We cannot wait for Washington to get a jobs program going so what are you willing to do NOW to save these millions of HURTING Americans now?"

The video version can be seen below or at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QzFZvgXsVE

I urge all 99ers to vote on these important questions as I doubt Obama will address the 99er Nation in tonight’s speech.



[The donation button below is for Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]





Donna Brazile @ CNN: SOTU as Prom

Always insightful, author, strategist, and professor Donna Brazile talks about the sudden, good-natured "civility" exhibited by Congress for tonight's State of the Union in an OpEd column today at CNN - How State of the Union became a prom. There remain two problems she's glossing over as she concludes, charitably...
"We don't all have to agree with each other, but for the good of the country, it's important that we sit together as Americans. After all, this could be good for the country, too."
Professor Donna Brazile, CNN Conributor
25 Jan 2011
First, it's patently political posing -- plain old posturing -- a ploy for the attention and implied praise of the pundits that probably won't impact one Congressional debate or vote, but will probably garner that holy grail, media coverage for most of the players.

Secondly, focus on the mechanics, or logistics, or whatever you want to call this staging of seating arrangements, inevitably detracts from time people spent reflecting on the President's actual message. Granting that GOP strategists are delighted to direct public attention to anything but President Obama's hour in the limelight, particularly in the wake of his speech dealing with the tragedy in Tuscon, it seems curious that their Democratic counterparts are being pulled in.

The narrative of tonight's State of the Union speech is fast becoming "they played so nicely together." Count the minutes in the coverage leading up to the State of the Union and particularly the post-speech dissection, bearing in mind that every minute spent on how members of Congress arranged their seats is akin to watching the royals - "Congress-watching" lacks substance, although it's probably easier for most pundits on the spur of the moment than genuine analysis.

I don't need to relive Joe Wilson's "You lie!" moment, but I've watched politics too long to fall for this pre-planned mugging for the cameras and the echo-chamber media, either. When they control the information the GOP wins the messaging battle; who wins if they can distract from the President's powerful post-Tuscon message by getting the media to talk about who sat with whom, and possibly draw a few extra eyeballs to the dueling GOP/Tea-Party responses?


Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, former Democratic Campaign Manager, journalist, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community. You can follow him as @kabiu on twitter.

99ers Expect State of Union Address to be All Fluff No Substance

Ask millions of longest term unemployed today and they will tell you, 99ers expect the State of Union Address to be all fluff and No substance whatsoever. After all, the 2010 speech was all about jobs, for the most part and nothing at all was done to that end the rest of last year.

The fact that President Obama has yet to utter the word “99ers” has become a great bone of contention among millions of UI exhaustees across the country. Many, like me are of the opinion that if tonight’s speech comes and goes with no mention of the 99ers by name, that is it - we are done supporting a President who refuses to acknowledge our existence - let alone actively seeks to resolve our suffering.

It pains me to say this, but unless President Obama is generous enough to throw the UI exhaustees a bone and address the 99ers directly during the 2011 State of the Union Address, I will be forced to begin working as hard at making him a one term President as I did to get him elected in 2008.

I cannot understand the appointments made to important economic leadership positions or why America is cow towing to every nation in the world but the needs of our own. Perhaps that is why I am not in a position of political leadership. I have never been accused of being "too politic" that is for sure, but I am very savvy about common sense solutions and it never has made much sense to me to put the wolves in charge of the hen house.

Today over 46 million people in this country are struggling to survive way below the poverty line - finally something we have in common with the population of China. Not exactly the “Push to compete globally” I was hoping for.

It would have been very nice had a 99er advocacy leader been asked to sit in one of the “seats of Honor” beside Mrs. Obama - but that would have been too much to hope for as those seats are mostly filled tonight by Americans connected with the tragedy in Tucson.

Please do not get me started on that subject again. Suffice it to say I do not approve of any official sanctioning of the premise that the tragedies of the few (no matter how dire) somehow outweigh the social holocaust of millions. More of a balance would have been nice, but even more important, what does it tell the loonies in America about the sort of attention they can garner when they decide to resort to violence - even if that violence was prompted by mental illness?

99ers are not the only ones who openly declare their strong belief that Obama needs to dedicate at least a portion of tonight’s speech to address the 99er situation. Ed Schultz of MSNBC has mentioned so on more than one of his radio shows of late and CNN’s Ali Velshi actually wrote letter to the President which he read on air recently (see video below).

Echoing the same sentiment is political strategist, James Carville. Mr. Carville is famous for assisting President Clinton with a single sentence: “It’s the economy, stupid”. When asked this evening on CNN what sentence he would sum up that Barack Obama’s State of the Union address tomorrow, Carville’s response was, “it’s jobs, stupid”. Carville went on to say that anything the President would say in his scheduled 9PM EST address to the nation would be “an utter waste of time” if it did not detail a plan to bolster job creation.

Let’s hope Obama heeds the call and ends his long silence on the tragedy of the American 99ers TODAY , as acceptance/acknowledgement is the first step which opens the door to resolving what ails you - especially the malignancy of long term unemployment in America today.

SPECIAL NOTE: To all you Tweeps out there Please Tweet the following all day long:
@WhipHoyer ; Steny, the disenfranchised '99ers are the worst part of the jobs deficit. As a nation we cannot leave them behind - #Obama #SOU

Ali Velshi letter to the President: Dear Mr. President, fix this mess, 99ers need help.



[The donation button below is for Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]




Academy Awards 2011 Nominations List: The King's Speech Leads All

The Academy Awards 2011 Nominations List is out after the announcement this morning, and we have some surprises. But before we get to them, it must be noted that The King's Speech, produced by The Weinstein Company, which marketed the hell out of the movie during the awards consideration period, leads all movies with 12 nominations.

Jeff Bridges is nominated for Best Actor for True Grit. It's the second straight year for Bridges, who won last year for Crazy Heart.

No Chris Nolan or Ryan Gosling

One noted snub is the absence of a nomination for Ryan Gosling for his role in Blue Valentine.

But no Chris Nolan? His movie, Inception, was the hit of the Summer and a really well-done mind-bender of a film in more ways than one. How Nolan could be missed for Best Director is beyond reason, but it happened.

Living For 32 Snubbed

Living For 32, this blogger's favorite for Oscar Documentary Short, wasn't picked either. Perhaps the timing of the Arizona Shooting, which was relevant to Living For 32's subject matter, the Virginia Tech Shooting, was just off. In retrospect, the movie was perfect in that the conversation about the need for better gun control law enforcement has started yet again.

Here's the full list, below.

Nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Javier Bardem in "Biutiful" (Roadside Attractions)
Jeff Bridges in "True Grit" (Paramount)
Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Colin Firth in "The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company)
James Franco in "127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Christian Bale in "The Fighter" (Paramount)
John Hawkes in "Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions)
Jeremy Renner in "The Town" (Warner Bros.)
Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features)
Geoffrey Rush in "The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company)
Performance by an actress in a leading role

Annette Bening in "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features)
Nicole Kidman in "Rabbit Hole" (Lionsgate)
Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions)
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight)
Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine" (The Weinstein Company)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Amy Adams in "The Fighter" (Paramount)
Helena Bonham Carter in "The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company)
Melissa Leo in "The Fighter" (Paramount)
Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit"(Paramount)
Jacki Weaver in "Animal Kingdom" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Best animated feature film of the year

"How to Train Your Dragon" (Paramount), Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
"The Illusionist" (Sony Pictures Classics), Sylvain Chomet
"Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), Lee Unkrich
Achievement in art direction

"Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney), Production Design: Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" (Warner Bros.), Production Design: Stuart Craig, Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas, Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Production Design: Eve Stewart, Set Decoration: Judy Farr
"True Grit" (Paramount), Production Design: Jess Gonchor, Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
Achievement in cinematography

"Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight), Matthew Libatique
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfister
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Danny Cohen
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Jeff Cronenweth
"True Grit" (Paramount), Roger Deakins
Achievement in costume design

"Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney), Colleen Atwood
"I Am Love" (Magnolia Pictures), Antonella Cannarozzi
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Jenny Beavan
"The Tempest" (Miramax), Sandy Powell
"True Grit" (Paramount), Mary Zophres
Achievement in directing

"Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight), Darren Aronofsky
"The Fighter" (Paramount), David O. Russell
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Tom Hooper
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), David Fincher
"True Grit" (Paramount), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Best documentary feature

"Exit through the Gift Shop" (Producers Distribution Agency), A Paranoid Pictures Production, Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
"Gasland", A Gasland Production, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
"Inside Job" (Sony Pictures Classics), A Representational Pictures Production, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Restrepo" (National Geographic Entertainment), An Outpost Films Production, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
"Waste Land" (Arthouse Films), An Almega Projects Production, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley
Best documentary short subject

"Killing in the Name", A Moxie Firecracker Films Production, Nominees to be determined
"Poster Girl", A Portrayal Films Production, Nominees to be determined
"Strangers No More", A Simon & Goodman Picture Company Production, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
"Sun Come Up", A Sun Come Up Production, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
"The Warriors of Qiugang", A Thomas Lennon Films Production, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon
Achievement in film editing

"Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight), Andrew Weisblum
"The Fighter" (Paramount), Pamela Martin
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Tariq Anwar
"127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), Jon Harris
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
Best foreign language film of the year

"Biutiful" (Roadside Attractions), A Menage Atroz, Mod Producciones and Ikiru Films Production, Mexico
"Dogtooth" (Kino International), A Boo Production, Greece
"In a Better World" (Sony Pictures Classics), A Zentropa Production, Denmark
"Incendies" (Sony Pictures Classics), A Micro-Scope Production, Canada
"Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)" (Cohen Media Group), A Tassili Films Production, Algeria
Achievement in makeup

"Barney’s Version" (Sony Pictures Classics), Adrien Morot
"The Way Back" (Newmarket Films in association with Wrekin Hill Entertainment and Image Entertainment), Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
"The Wolfman" (Universal), Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

"How to Train Your Dragon" (Paramount), John Powell
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Hans Zimmer
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Alexandre Desplat
"127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

"Coming Home" from "Country Strong" (Sony Pictures Releasing (Screen Gems)), Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
"I See the Light" from "Tangled" (Walt Disney), Music by Alan Menken, Lyric by Glenn Slater
"If I Rise" from "127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
"We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Best motion picture of the year

"Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight), A Protozoa and Phoenix Pictures Production, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
"The Fighter" (Paramount), A Relativity Media Production, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), A Warner Bros. UK Services Production, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
"The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features), An Antidote Films, Mandalay Vision and Gilbert Films Production, Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), A See-Saw Films and Bedlam Production, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
"127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), An Hours Production, Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), A Columbia Pictures Production, Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
"Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), A Pixar Production, Darla K. Anderson, Producer
"True Grit" (Paramount), A Paramount Pictures Production, Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions), A Winter’s Bone Production, Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers
Best animated short film

"Day & Night" (Walt Disney), 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", (Nick Batzias for Madman Entertainment), 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" (National Film and Television School), A National Film and Television School Production, Tanel Toom
"The Crush" (Network Ireland Television), A Purdy Pictures Production, Michael Creagh
"God of Love", A Luke Matheny Production, Luke Matheny
"Na Wewe" (Premium Films), 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" (Warner Bros.), Richard King
"Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
"Tron: Legacy" (Walt Disney), Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
"True Grit" (Paramount), Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
"Unstoppable" (20th Century Fox), Mark P. Stoeckinger
Achievement in sound mixing

"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
"Salt" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
"True Grit" (Paramount), Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Achievement in visual effects

"Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney), Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" (Warner Bros.), Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
"Hereafter" (Warner Bros.), Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
"Iron Man 2" (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment, Distributed by Paramount), Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
Adapted screenplay

"127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
"The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
"Toy Story 3" (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Michael Arndt, Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
"True Grit" (Paramount), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"Winter’s Bone" (Roadside Attractions), Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Original screenplay

"Another Year" (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Mike Leigh
"The Fighter" (Paramount), Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson, Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
"Inception" (Warner Bros.), Written by Christopher Nolan
"The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features), Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
"The King’s Speech" (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Seidler