Cinephiles, it’s your day -- a day in which bets must be paid off, sighs of relief and anger must be given, and speculation must begin on a month long journey towards Oscar Day. Yes, early this morning the official Academy Award nominations were released, and folks, this year’s going to be a doozy.

My immediate reaction upon getting my hands on the list was to bolt to the Best Actress category. Sure enough, Annette Benning (The Kids Are All Right) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan) have attained their rightful spots as shoe-ins; Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) is a necessity; and Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole) and Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine) have swooped in gallantly to pick up the two less certain spots. Now, I haven’t seen Michelle in Blue Valentine, but Jennifer Lawrence’s performance as the scarily realistic, uber-determined Ree Dolly in Winter’s Bone was my personal favorite of the year. Will she win? Probably not, as this race is mostly between Annette and Natalie, but it’s still nice to see Jennifer in her well-deserved place as a nominee. More Jennifer Lawrence in 2011, please!

And on to Best Supporting Actress we go. I can’t pretend I’m not Team Hailee Steinfeld all the way, and her nomination for True Grit only supports my assertion that she is, one of, if not the most promising young actress of this generation. It’s not easy to steal the spotlight from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin, but Hailee does so with ease, power, and, well, true grit. I auditioned for the part myself a couple years ago and still would have cast Hailee a hundred times over. Oh, and dear casting directors of the world: please make Hailee Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games movies. There’s a whole Facebook group asking for this. Don’t disappoint us!

Joining Hailee is the always stunning Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech), Amy Adams (The Fighter), Melissa Leo (The Fighter), and Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom). As much as I adore Hailee, Melissa Leo’s chameleon performance as the terrifyingly overprotective manager mother of two boxer brothers is the kind of thing Academy voters eat right up. Also, don’t count out Jacki, who’s had one of the most talked about performances of the year in Animal Kingdom.

As far as actor nominations go, here’s the breakdown: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), and James Franco (127 Hours) all snagged expected nominations for Best Actor, while Jeff Bridges (True Grit) and Javier Bardem (Biutiful) claimed the more surprising spots. Count on Colin for this one, but it’s a tough race, so an underdog win is not out of the question. In the supporting slots are Christian Bale (The Fighter), John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone), Jeremy Renner (The Town), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), and Geoffery Rush (The King’s Speech). Christian’s nearly got this one in the bag as a coke-addicted ex-boxer, but don’t count out Geoffrey’s charming speech pathologist from The King’s Speech.

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Think of the Directing category this year as the movies that would have been nominated for best picture had there only been five spots. Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), David O. Russell (The Fighter), Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), David Fincher (The Social Network), and Joel & Ethan Coen (True Grit) will all be going head-to-head and, honestly, it’s anyone’s game.

The Best Picture category features those five films as well as the five filler, probably hopeless movies that are Inception, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, Toy Story 3, and Winter’s Bone. Undoubtedly Toy Story 3 will win best animated picture, so the ultimate battle for Best Pic will most likely be between The King’s Speech and The Social Network. Personally, I would be perfectly happy if the terrifying experience that was Black Swan came out on top, but I’m not holding my breath.

As for snubs, the biggest surprise may be that actually not too many people were left out this year. Some may be sad to notice Black Swan’s Mila Kunis’ absence Supporting Actress category but, as wonderful as she is, this just isn’t her year. The same goes for Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right, a movie I wasn’t too fond of in the first place. Personally, I would have swapped Jeremy Renner’s Boston con in The Town for Andrew Garfield’s sympathetic co-Facebook creator in TheSocial Network, and Christopher Nolan definitely deserved a directing nod for Inception, but I’ll just have to dry my invisible tears and move on. Now the only thing left to do is re-watch every nominated movie, fill out a ballot, and wait until February 27th for the real action to take place. And as hard as waiting may be, fellow cinephiles, this year’s Academy Awards ceremony promises to be worth it.

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