Australian Nominees for 2011 Oscars Include Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush and Jacki Weaver

When the 2011 Oscar nominations were announced yesterday, in the very early hours of the morning (it was roughly 12:38am Sydney time), we were happy to see that three of our Golden Globe hopefuls had managed to score nods for the Academy Awards: Nicole Kidman for her leading role in Rabbit Hole, Geoffrey Rush for his supporting role in (Oscar favourite) The King’s Speech, and Jacki Weaver for her supporting role in Animal Kingdom. They weren’t unexpected but very well-deserved, and it should be noted that Jacki’s nomination signifies the first time in 14 years that an Australian actor has been nominated for playing an Australian character in an Australian film that’s set in Australia. (Last time it was Geoffrey Rush, who won the Oscar for his work in Shine.)

Other Aussies picking up nominations include Ben Snow for Best Visual Effects for Iron Man 2, Shaun Tan for Best Animated Short Film for The Lost Thing, Kirk Baxter for Best Film Editing for The Social Network and Emile Sherman produced Best Film nominee The King’s Speech. Big congratulations to all our nominees — we’ll have our fingers crossed on Feb. 27!