"Shit! He got robbed."

I was knee-deep in Madonna recapping this morning when the Oscar nominations were announced—some real surprises in there, including only two nominees for song (suck it, Elton John), a full five nominees for animated feature (but no Gnomeo & Juliet, so...maybe David Furnish & Elton John can 69-suck it!), no recognition for Bill Cunningham New York, no Leo DiCaprio (yet STILL no space for Michael Fassbender) and quite a few more.

Here is what I heard from the ultimate Oscars expert, Nathaniel from The Film Experience Blog:

Dear Matthew:

Since we shared a table with Madonna at W.E.'s press day, I thought of you first when I saw W.E.'s Oscar nomination for costume design for M's longtime collaborator Arianne Phillips. Well, this is not strictly true. I thought of you fifth after: Madonna who always comes first; Arianne who was a joy to interview—stay tuned; Andrea Riseborough, who undoubtedly helped with this nomination...what a clothes hanger!; myself and how I did on my predictions; and then you because I knew you'd be pleased. (And I wish you would hurry up with a revised edition of Encylopedia Madonnica already!)

As someone who follows the Oscar race super closely, I'm rarely shocked by anything on Nomination Morning, but this year's biggest surprises were a somewhat muted response to The Help (it missed a few key categories), last-minute love for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (I should've known—the couple behind me at one of the first Academy screenings whispered "wow!" when it ended) and a strong showing for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy...though weirdly it was snubbed for its single greatest element (Art Direction). I can't say that I'm surprised by the complete shut-outs for Young Adult or Shame (even those brilliant lead performances!) since I predicted both to be shunned. Oscar doesn't do dark, satirical comedy or explicit sexuality (unless it's nonconsensual with a dragon tattoo).

Back to updating my Oscar charts!

All the nominees are here, all of Nathaniel's Oscar predictions are here and all of his other Oscar-worthy Oscar work is here.

Were there any major surprises for you?