South Africa’s aliens invade the Oscars!

THE biggest surprise among this year’s Oscar nominees is a movie about aliens.

No, it’s not ‘Avatar’, but rather the made-in-South Africa ‘District 9’, a left-field hit from the summer of 2009, and now a left-field Best Picture nominee.Whether the Peter Jackson-produced film, which is equal parts social commentary and gory video-game blasta-thon, has a fighting chance against ‘The Hurt Locker’ – which grabbed nine nominations, tying ‘Avatar’ for the most – or six-time nominee ‘Up in the Air’ remains to be seen.Still, the Academy has bestowed a mass amount of love on Neill Blomkamp’s Sci-Fi opus, putting it up for awards in four categories:•Best Picture – Peter Jackson & Carolynne Cummingham•Best Editing – Julian Clarke•Best Adapted Screenplay – Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell•Best Visual Effects – Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt AitkenOverall, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences got what it wanted: an eclectic mix of 10 best picture nominees. Though it was no surprise that ‘Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire’ and ‘Up in the Air’ earned best picture nods, there were some unexpected choices, including ‘The Blind Side’, ‘An Education’ and ‘A Serious Man’.An animated film, ‘Up’, and another war film, the acclaimed ‘Inglourious Basterds’, also make the line-up.Yesterday’s announcement marked the first time in 64 years that there were 10 nominees in this marquee category, instead of the traditional five.The nominees for best director were as expected. They included: James Cameron for ‘Avatar’, Kathryn Bigelow for ‘The Hurt Locker’, Lee Daniels for ‘Precious’, Quentin Tarantino for ‘Inglourious Basterds’ and Jason Reitman for ‘Up in the Air’.But two of the nominees were nonetheless noteworthy: Bigelow, who won the Directors Guild of America Award over the weekend, is only the fourth woman to earn a best director nod. Daniels is just the second African American filmmaker to earn that honour.In the acting categories, the academy followed in the footsteps of the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The only real surprise was Maggie Gyllenhaal for best supporting actress for ‘Crazy Heart’. She had largely been overlooked this awards season.The nominees for best actress were Sandra Bullock for ‘The Blind Side’, Helen Mirren for ‘The Last Station’, Carey Mulligan for ‘An Education’, Gabourey Sidibe for ‘Precious’ and Meryl Streep for ‘Julie & Julia’.With this nod, Streep has earned an unprecedented 16 Oscar nominations over the last 31 years. She has received two Oscars: best supporting actress for 1979’s ‘Kramer vs Kramer’ and best actress for 1982’s ‘Sophie’s Choice’.The best actor nominations went to Jeff Bridges for ‘Crazy Heart’, George Clooney for ‘Up in the Air’, Colin Firth for ‘A Single Man’, Morgan Freeman for ‘Invictus’, and Jeremy Renner for ‘The Hurt Locker’.The Oscars will be telecast on March 7 from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.Besides increasing its nomination list for best picture, the academy also is featuring two hosts at the Oscar ceremony: Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, who just starred together in ‘It’s Complicated’.- Sources: The Los Angeles Times, mlive.com, flix66