Best Actor Oscar: Colin Firth + George Clooney + Jeff Bridges

Best Actor Oscar nominees

Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2010 Oscar Nominees Luncheon held this afternoon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. This year’s five Best Actor nominees are in the running for the following films: A Single Man (Firth), The Hurt Locker (Renner), Crazy Heart (Bridges), Invictus (Freeman), and Up in the Air (Clooney).

George Clooney has been the US critics’ favorite, but Jeff Bridges has the awards season momentum thanks to his Golden Globe and SAG Award wins, in addition to awards from several critics’ groups including the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Bridges, whose film career spans about four decades, is the favorite to win the 2010 Best Actor Oscar. This is his fifth nomination in the acting categories, and his second as a lead actor. He has never won.

Clooney won a best supporting Oscar for Syriana four years ago. He was also nominated as Best Actor for Michael Clayton. Morgan Freeman won a best supporting actor Oscar for Million Dollar Baby five years ago. He’s been nominated a total of five times; this is Freeman’s third nomination as a lead actor. Jeremy Renner and veteran Colin Firth are Oscar newcomers.

Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.

Kathryn Bigelow, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, and Jason Reitman at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon held earlier today at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. This year’s five Oscar-nominated directors are in the running for the following movies: Inglourious Basterds (Tarantino), The Hurt Locker (Bigelow), Avatar (Cameron), Precious (Daniels), and Up in the Air (Reitman). Tarantino, Cameron, and Reitman are second-time nominees; Daniels is a newcomer in that category.

Thus far, Kathryn Bigelow has been the US critics’ choice for best director of the year for the Iraq War drama written by Mark Boal. Additionally, Bigelow has taken home the Directors Guild of America‘s top motion picture prize – the first woman to do so. Last night, The Hurt Locker won the American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Award (drama) and a few weeks ago the film was the Producers Guild’s choice for top movie of 2009.

The Hurt Locker and Avatar lead the Oscar 2010 race with nine nominations apiece, including Best Picture. The 2010 Oscar winners will be announced on Sunday, March 7.

Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.

Fourteen Academy Award nominees in the acting categories are expected to be among more than 120 nominees gathering today at noon for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner, Sandra Bullock, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe and Meryl Streep are expected to attend. And so are supporting nominees Vera Farmiga, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anna Kendrick, Woody Harrelson and Christoph Waltz. Nine supporting actress nominee Penélope Cruz was at the Spanish Academy’s 2010 Goya Awards in Madrid last night. Perhaps she felt that zooming to Los Angeles that same night would have been a bit much – though she’s done that in the past.

All five nominees from the Directing category – Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino – are also expected to attend.

We have some images from the 2009 Nominees Luncheon and the 2008 Nominees Luncheon. We’ll be adding photos of the 2010 Nominees Luncheon as they become available.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Jeremy Renner, Kathryn Bigelow, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Jeff Bridges were among the nearly 120 Oscar nominees gathered at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills this afternoon for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Nominees Luncheon. The Luncheon was in honor of all 2009 Oscar nominees and special award winners. Academy President Tom Sherak handed each nominee an official certificate of nomination.

Others getting their certificate included Lee Daniels, Morgan Freeman, Jason Reitman, Ivan Reitman, Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga, Christoph Waltz, Woody Harrelson, The Cove director Louie Psihoyos, Pete Docter, James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Precious screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher, The Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal, and An Education screenwriter Nick Hornby.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Sandra Bullock was the first Oscar nominee to field questions from reporters at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon clip above. “It’s always unexpected to me,” Bullock says, referring to whenever one of her projects really pan out. She then added that her best actress Oscar nomination for The Blind Side was unexpected as well. (She was probably the only one who was surprised.) She went on to discuss the “crazy money” she has made, her career choices, and her Vivienne Westwood garment (in answer to a journalist’s question). Bullock was followed by Lee Daniels, Vera Farmiga (who gives advice to frequent flyers…), Woody Harrelson, and others. Note: The sound isn’t all the great.

Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, George Clooney, Jeremy Renner, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, and Jeff Bridges were among the nearly 120 Oscar nominees who gathered at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills earlier today for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon. The Luncheon was in honor of all 2009 Oscar nominees and special award winners, with each nominee receiving an official certificate of nomination.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Jonas Rivera is the producer of Best Picture and Best Animated Feature nominee Up. Andrew A. Kosove is one of the three credited (by the Academy) producers of the sleeper blockbuster The Blind Side. Gregg Helvey is the director-producer of live action short film nominee Kavi. Lee Daniels is up for the Best Director Oscar for the urban family drama Precious.

Up for the Best Actress Academy Award, Meryl Streep received her 16th Oscar nomination, this time for Julie & Julia. Broderick Johnson is another official (as per Academy rules) The Blind Side producer. Lise Lense-Møller is the producer of Best Documentary Feature nominee Burma VJ. Tivi Magnusson is one of the producers of the Best Live Action Short Film nominee The New Tenants. George Clooney is a Best Actor nominee for Up in the Air, and James Cameron is in the running as the director and one of the editors and producers of the megablockbuster Avatar.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Tomm Moore (bottom), Jeff Bridges (left), Sandra Bullock (center), Peter J. Devlin (right), Richard Baneham (upper left), Jonas Rivera (upper center) and Andrew A. Kosove (upper right) at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday, Feb. 15, 2010.

Tomm Moore The Secret of Kells was a surprise nominee in the Best Animated Feature category. Jeff Brides is up for a Best Actor Oscar for Crazy Heart, in which he plays a troubled country singer. Sandra Bullock is a Best Actress Oscar contender for the runaway sleeper hit The Blind Side. Peter J. Devlin is one of the Best Sound Mixing nominees for Star Trek.

Richard Baneham is one of those up for the Best Visual Effects Oscar for the megablockbuster Avatar. Jonas Rivera is the producer of Best Picture and Best Animated Feature nominee Up. Andrew A. Kosove is one of the three credited producers of The Blind Side.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Front row (from left) Mark Boal, Fisher Stevens, Paul N.J. Ottosson, Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Middle row (from left) Luke Doolan, Jason Reitman, Ivan Reitman, Morgan Freeman, and Kathryn Bigelow. Back row (from left) Tom Myers, Geoffrey Patterson, Sandy Powell, and Greg Shapiro at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday, Feb. 15, 2010.

Mark Boal is the nominated screenwriter and one of the nominated producers of the Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker. Fisher Stevens is one of the nominated producers of Best Documentary Feature nominee The Cove. Paul N.J. Ottosson is up for two Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing for The Hurt Locker.

Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga are both in the running in the Best Supporting Actress category for Up in the Air. Maggie Gyllenhaal is another Best Supporting Actress nominee, for Crazy Heart. Luke Doolan is the director of Best Live Action Short nominee Miracle Fish. Jason Reitman is an Oscar contender for directing, co-writing, and co-producing Up in the Air. Ivan Reitman is one of the producers of that film. Morgan Freeman is a Best Actor nominee for Invictus, while Kathryn Bigelow is a Best Director nominee for The Hurt Locker.

Tom Myers is a Best Sound Editing nominee for Up. Geoffrey Patterson is a Best Sound Mixing nominee for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Sandy Powell was nominated in the Best Costume Design category for The Young Victoria. And Greg Shapiro is one of the four nominated The Hurt Locker producers.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Photo: Darren Decker / © A.M.P.A.S.

Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, George Clooney, and Morgan Freeman prove once and for all that there’s no rivalry among this year’s Best Actor nominees while sharing a joke at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday, Feb. 15, 2010.

Jeff Bridges plays an aging country singer in Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart, and he’s the odds-on favorite to take home the Oscar. Jeremy Renner is a member of a bomb squad unit in Iraq in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, while George Clooney plays an expert corporate downsizer in Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. Morgan Freeman impersonates Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus, which got some good reviews but didn’t do very good business. Though expected to get a Best Picture nomination, the political rugby movie was left out.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.

Woody Harrelson, Lee Daniels, and Jeff Bridges got together at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday, Feb. 15, 2010.

Woody Harrelson is a Best Supporting Actor nominee for the drama The Messenger. Lee Daniels is in the running as the director of the urban drama Precious, while Jeff Bridges is a Best Actor nominee for Crazy Heart, in which he plays a troubled country singer. Bridges is this year’s favorite to take home the Oscar. He has been nominated four other times, but he has never won an Academy Award.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

T Bone Burnett is in the running for the song “The Weary Kind,” which he co-wrote with Ryan Bingham for Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges as an aging country singer. Sheldon Turner is a nominee (with Jason Reitman) for Best Adapted Screenplay for the socially conscious comedy-drama Up in the Air, starring Best Actor nominee George Clooney. Also in the Up in the Air cast are Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Photo: Matt Petit / © A.M.P.A.S.

T Bone Burnett is in the running for the 2010 Oscar in the Best Song category for “The Weary Kind,” which he co-wrote with Ryan Bingham for Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges as a down-and-out country singer. Geoffrey Fletcher is a nominee in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire. Directed by Lee Daniels, Precious stars Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, and Mariah Carey.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Meryl Streep and Colin Firth are all smiles at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday, Feb. 15, 2010.

Best Actress nominee Meryl Streep is in the running for the comedy Julie & Julia, in which she plays Julia Child. It’s Streep’s 16th Oscar nod and her 13th in the Best Actress category. Streep currently has more overall acting nominations, nominations as a leading performer, and losses (13 times) than any other actor or actress. Colin Firth received his first Oscar nod for his bereaved gay college professor in Tom Ford’s A Single Man.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Photo: Richard Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.

James Cameron talks to Ivan Reitman at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday, Feb. 15, ’10.

This year, James Cameron is in the running for three Academy Awards for his work on the megablockbuster Avatar: Best Director, Best Editing (shared), and as one of the producers of the Best Picture nominee. Ivan Reitman is one of the producers of Up in the Air, directed, co-produced, and co-written by his son Jason Reitman. Cameron won a Best Director Oscar for Titanic (1997); Reitman, despite several highly successful directorial efforts – e.g., Ghost Busters (1984), Dave (1993) – has never been nominated in that category.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Photo: Richard Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.

Best Supporting Actress nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal is a first-time nominee for Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart, in which she plays Jeff Bridges’ love interest. Her brother, Jake Gyllenhaal, was a Best Supporting Actor nominee for Brokeback Mountain in 2005. Best Supporting Actress nominee Vera Farmiga is another first-timer. She plays George Clooney’s romantic interest in Jason Reitman’s socially conscious comedy-drama Up in the Air.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Paul N.J. Ottosson is up for two Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing for The Hurt Locker. Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga are both in the running in the Best Supporting Actress category for the comedy-drama Up in the Air. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a Best Supporting Actress nominee for Crazy Heart. Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe are Best Actress nominees for, respectively, An Education and Precious.

Jason Reitman is an Oscar contender for directing, co-writing, and co-producing Up in the Air, while Ivan Reitman is one of the producers of that film. Morgan Freeman is a Best Actor nominee for Invictus, Kathryn Bigelow is a Best Director nominee and Jeremy Renner is a Best Actor nominee for The Hurt Locker. Sarah Siegel-Magness is one of the producers of Precious.

Geoffrey Patterson is a Best Sound Mixing nominee for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Sandy Powell in the running in the Best Costume Design category for The Young Victoria. Greg Shapiro is one of the four nominated The Hurt Locker producers, while Daniel Dubiecki is one of the nominated producers of Up in the Air. Joachim Back is the director of Live Action Short Film nominee The New Tenants.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Photo: Richard Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.

Visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund, James Cameron, and Kathryn Bigelow at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscar Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday, Feb. 15, 2010.

Richard Edlund has won two competitive Academy Awards – for Star Wars (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – in addition to two Special Achievement Awards, for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). (All of Edlund’s awards were shared with other visual effects technicians.) James Cameron is in the running this year for three Academy Awards for Avatar: Best Director, Best Editing (shared), and as one of the producers of the Best Picture nominee. Kathryn Bigelow is a Best Director nominee for the Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker. She’s only the fourth woman to get a nomination in that category.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.

This year, Christoph Waltz received his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a vicious Nazi in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. Waltz is the odds-on favorite to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Morgan Freeman’s nomination for his impersonation of South African leader Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus is his fifth Oscar nomination and his third in the lead category. Freeman’s previous nominations were for Street Smart (1987, supporting), Driving Miss Daisy (1989, lead), The Shawshank Redemption (1994, lead), and Million Dollar Baby (2004, supporting). He won an Oscar for Million Dollar Baby.

The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, it’ll be televised live by ABC.

Hash Hamilton was slated to direct the 2010 Oscar telecast.

Photo: Richard Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.