Oscar nominations! Got some catching up to do? We can help.

As you’ve surely noted by now, the Academy Award nominations were announced this morning to the expected flurry of hype and controversy. While we may respectfully disagree with the exclusion of the likes of Christopher Nolan and Ryan Gosling from individual awards categories, the Best Picture slate is pretty solid. Check it out:

THE BLACK SWAN, THE FIGHTER, INCEPTION, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, THE KING’S SPEECH, 127 HOURS, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, TOY STORY 3, TRUE GRIT, WINTER’S BONE.

OK, so maybe they missed on BLUE VALENTINE but you can’t win them all. Looking over this list is especially satisfying because we have played all of these films in our theaters this year with the exception of WINTER’S BONE, which we couldn’t fit in at the time. And of these; THE BLACK SWAN is onscreen currently at South Lamar and Lake Creek, THE FIGHTER is playing at Village, THE KING’S SPEECH is packing houses at South Lamar and Lake Creek, and TRUE GRIT continues as one of the biggest attractions at South Lamar, Lake Creek and Village. It’s good to know that we have an audience that wants the best and we’re thrilled to provide it.

There were some big surprises in the other categories. One of the major headscratchers is the exclusion of Christopher Nolan in the Directing category. While all of those nominated did an excellent job, Christopher Nolan seemed like an obvious inclusion.

Another notable name missing is Ryan Gosling in the Best Actor category, for his performance in BLUE VALENTINE. While his BV costar Michelle Williams was nominated in the Best Actress category, he didn’t make the cut.

One positive surprise was the nomination of DOGTOOTH in the Best Foreign Language Film Category. We sort of thought this one might be too weird for mainstream acclaim, but there you have it.

We were also happy to note that the consensus best movie of 2010 from the Alamo Programming Team, EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category.

As for all those Oscar Shorts, very few of us get too excited about these because so few have seen them, but as we’ve done in years past, we will be screening both the Live Action and the Animated Shorts nominated films at South Lamar starting on February 11. We’ll announce showtimes here when they become available.