In equal confusion with Childress over the Gyllenhaal-over-Moore decision, Peter Knegt of indieWIRE has a list of 10 Oscar surprises, including “The Blind Side” even being in the running for best picture.

Variety and Movie City News have a plethora of raw reactions from the nominees themselves, with an enthusiastic Lee Daniels, director of “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” stating: “After 82 years, it’s the first film nominated for best picture directed by an African American. Isn’t that great? It’s so exciting. How can you lose? You can’t lose!”

Across the pond, David Cox of the Guardian considers “Precious” an affront to the lower class, and goes on to explain why.

Not to imply an agenda, but Cox’s colleague, Xan Brooks, thinks “The Hurt Locker” should take the top prize.

Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere calls the institution’s choice to limit Jane Campion’s “Bright Star” to only one category — best costume design — an “injustice,” claiming the film was “shafted big-time this morning — up and down and around the town.” The announcement that Joel and Ethan Coen’s “A Serious Man” was a contender for best picture was Wells’ only “whoo-hoo!” moment of the morning.

Speaking of snubs, Lane Brown of New York magazine is not surprised that “Avatar” was overlooked for best original screenplay.

So along with the predictable passel of nominations (nine apiece) for James Cameron’s “Avatar” and ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” — and I’m calling the divorce settlement here and now: Jim gets best picture; Kath gets best director — the Academy spread the love in all directions. Disney/Pixar’s “Up” was nominated for both best picture and animated feature. The family-football-Sandra Bullock vehicle “The Blind Side,” which has made a ton of money while leaving bicoastal critics in glycemic shock, also got multiple nominations. Lee Daniels’ “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” got a best-picture nod along with two major acting nominations. The exquisite British female-coming-of-age film “An Education” was nominated for best picture, in a mild surprise, alongside a fully expected best-actress nomination for its irresistible ingénue star, Carey Mulligan.

In garnering best-picture and best-director nominations for his unspellable and borderline-unwatchable World War II pastiche, Quentin Tarantino becomes this year’s winner of the Martin Scorsese Way Too Late award, handed out annually to a director whose more worthwhile work has been largely ignored by the Academy. (Q.T. shared a screenwriting Oscar for “Pulp Fiction” in ’95.) In other news, it’s mighty peculiar that hardcore New Yorkers like Joel and Ethan Coen have become beloved figures in Hollywood, but there can no longer be any doubt. Their brilliant black-comic fable “A Serious Man” — a movie that gleefully and maliciously embraces the old cliché about being “too Jewish” for mainstream America — got a well-deserved nomination. But that surely wasn’t the big surprise among the gang of 10.

In a dinner conversation with critics last week at Sundance, we all agreed that one film among the best-picture nominees would be something nobody had expected. I remember a few possibilities mentioned: Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Pedro Almodóvar’s “Broken Embraces,” Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant!” But of course once we’d mentioned them, they weren’t unexpected anymore, were they? Nobody brought up “District 9,” the sci-fi action-allegory made by South African expat Neill Blomkamp under Peter Jackson’s production aegis, which became a surprise late-summer hit. (Dept. of complicated Hollywood dis: The movie made by Jackson’s little-known protégé gets an Academy nod, while Jackson’s own prestige production, “The Lovely Bones,” pointedly does not.)

This year’s acting nominations ran remarkably true to form, leaving all the favorites in place: George Clooney and Meryl Streep in the leading roles; Stanley Tucci and Christoph Waltz fighting it out for the evil-guy supporting actor prize, and Mo’Nique all by herself, vacuuming some shelf space in the den for that statuette. Yes, I can hear the grumbling from the cinephile margins: Clooney was better in “Fantastic Mr. Fox” than he was in “Up in the Air”; Penélope Cruz was way, way better in “Broken Embraces” than she was in the musical megaflop “Nine”; the year’s best female performance, given by Tilda Swinton in French director Érick Zonca’s “Julia,” was never even on the Academy’s radar. Sure, yes, I agree on all counts. But when Zonca’s movies start showing up on the Oscar telecast, winning Oscars, it won’t be on NBC or ABC or A&E or any other TV network; it’ll be Web-streamed live from the back room of a Hollywood Boulevard liquor store in the middle of the night. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! That’ll be cool in kind of a different way.

I’ll consider the more niche-oriented nominations in due course, but my initial reaction is that the Academy has now avoided total disgrace in the foreign-language and documentary categories for two years running, which is an all-time record. “The Cove” and “Food, Inc.” were obvious documentary nominees, but it’s a wonderful surprise to see Anders Østergaard’s “Burma VJ” on the list. A thrilling and inspiring film largely shot by anonymous contributors inside Myanmar, it documents the doomed popular uprising against the Burmese military junta in 2007 — truly a one-of-a-kind viewing experience. It’s true that French New Wave foremother Agnès Varda’s delightful, autobiographical “The Beaches of Agnès” was left out, but you can’t call that a shocker.

Instead of the customary blend of cynical and/or sentimental foreign-language glop, this year’s Academy list includes at least two films, Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” and Jacques Audiard’s still-unreleased “A Prophet,” that are clearly among 2009′s finest examples of world cinema. (I still haven’t seen the Israeli-Palestinian collaborative project “Ajami,” but I hear it’s terrific too.) Any lingering controversies in this category, such as the absence of Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s explosive “Il Divo” or Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s “Mother,” predate Tuesday’s announcement by weeks or months.

But there were moments nonetheless, authentic or just weird bursts of humanity that seemed to kick through the stiff, the strange and the surreal. You know, kind of like in a James Cameron movie. So in case you were watching “24” or simply passed out in boredom, let me break down the whole excruciating three hours into its 10 liveliest nuggets.

10. “Precious” star Mo’Nique, who has been much bitched out for not doing more awards lobbying, tearfully accepting her Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Drama nod by saying, “I celebrate this award with all the Preciouses, with all the Marys. I celebrate this award with every person that’s ever been touched. It’s now time to tell, and it’s OK.” 

9. Paul McCartney, giving out the award for Best Animated Motion Picture and identifying himself as “the guy from Rock Band.” As he dryly explained, “Animation is not just for children. They’re also for adults who take drugs.” He then announced the nominees by saying, “So let’s take a look at the films nominated by drug-taking adults.”

8. Michael C. Hall, who just last week revealed he’s battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma, humbly accepting the Best Actor in a Television Drama award for his role on “Dexter.” Wearing a wooly black cap, he didn’t acknowledge his condition, focusing instead on his gratitude toward his cast, crew and family. But the look on castmember (and fellow Golden Globe winner) John Lithgow’s face said it all. It was two guys who’d won for playing psycho killers sharing a moment of mutual respect and grace.

7. Julianna Margulies, winning for Best Actress in a Television Drama for “The Good Wife,” thanking CBS president and CEO Les Moonves and CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler “for believing in the 10 o’clock drama.” Pointed, funny, and dead on.

6. Well-placed ironic humor award of the night for the one-two punch of Gervais introducing the writing category as “a bit of a downer,” followed shortly after by Samuel L. Jackson calling Best Picture nominee “Inglorious Basterds” “the feel-good movie of the year.”

5. “The Hangover” beating out the dozen Meryl Streep movies it was up against to score one of the few surprises of the evening for Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. What’s better than seeing Mike Tyson up on stage with the winners? Having all of them take their victory lap to the strains of the movie’s poignant, tigers-and-crystal-meth-referencing ballad. Doug! Douggie Douggie Doug Doug! 

4. New kid on the block “Glee” taking Best Television Comedy – and having the jubilant cast and crew gather behind creator Ryan Murphy, who said, “This is for anybody and everybody who got a wedgie in high school.”

3. Jeff Bridges, laconic and low-key as ever, pulling an upset and winning Best Actor in a Drama for “Crazy Heart.” And his response to getting a standing ovation: “You’re really screwing up my ‘underappreciated’ status here.” Thanking his late father, actor Lloyd Bridges, for encouraging his kids to get into show business, Bridges explained: “‘He said, ‘Come on, it’s fun, let’s go!’ So glad I listened to you, dad.”

2. Ricky Gervais, late in the game, holding a beer and gleefully chalking up his lame-o performance to the beverage. But the kicker was him saying, “I like a drink as much as the next man, unless the next man … is Mel Gibson.” Cue Mel Gibson, on hand to present the Best Director award.

1. James Cameron. Oh where to begin? Let’s start with his Best Director win for “Avatar,” inspiring a look of what certainly resembled pure, raw hatred on the face of “Up in the Air” co-writer and director Jason Reitman. (An expression Reitman wore again, only doubly so, when “Avatar” took Best Motion Picture Drama.) Remember 12 years ago, when Cameron looked like he was winning the award for World’s Biggest Self-Loving Asshole with his Oscar night King of the World shtick? He almost avoided that this year, politely acknowledging his ex-wife and fellow nominee, “Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow, by saying she “richly deserved it.” But then, the hubris kicked in. This time he thanked his peeps by saying “I see you” in – no, he wouldn’t (oh God yes he did) – Na’vi. (Though borrowing from his own movie, Cameron instead called to mind another of the evening’s winning films,”The Hangover,” and Zach Galifianakis’s cringeworthy “wolf pack” toast.)

But in case that wasn’t gross enough, Cameron followed up during his win for Best Picture by encouraging an audience packed with the most pampered, highly compensated people in the universe to applaud themselves. The saving grace of the moment? Watching the camera cut to “Titanic” star Leonardo DiCaprio, who refused to do it.

At the beginning of the evening, Ricky Gervais made a crack about “the most important people on the planet: Actors, they’re just better than ordinary people, aren’t they?” Later on, Globe winner Robert Downey Jr. offered a contrarian,  ”I don’t have anybody to thank … they needed me! ‘Avatar’ was going to take us to the cleaners!” In case you thought those were parodies of actual Hollywood thought processes, Cameron laid that right to rest.

Kudos to Kathryn Bigelow for smiling graciously through it all. One can only imagine what she was thinking, though it was probably a thought shared by many last night: “I may not have a billion dollars or Golden Globe, but at least I am not married t0 that raging dick up there.”

Of course, it’s a revolution led by uncommonly gorgeous, frequently naked white women who aren’t “plus-sized” in any context beyond the fevered imaginations of fashion professionals, but still — it’s a big enough deal that there’s already backlash. CNN recently wondered if public health is threatened by the one-two punch of bigger models coming into their own and a few journalists noticing the existence of a more than 40-year-old fat acceptance movement: “Although most people agree that promoting super-skinny models as the feminine (or masculine) ideal isn’t healthy, will the opposite — accepting that being overweight or obese is fine — undermine the progress being made toward heart health?” (As a friend of mine said, “Wow, how incredibly brave of them to publish this despite all the criticism they’ll get from the fat-accepting majority.”) Even if the average fat woman has yet to see a marked decrease in discrimination or disgust coming her way, and the average woman of any size remains dissatisfied with her body, I’m assured that the recent glut of size-12 nudie shots portends a sea change.

Let’s pause for a little reality check. Prominently featured on Glamour’s website at this writing is the headline “Sign Up for Body By Glamour and You Could Lose 5 Pounds This Week!” Further down the page, “How to Dress 10 Pounds Thinner,” “When I See a Woman This Skinny, It Just Makes Me Mad,” and “10 Ways to Reverse Holiday Weight Gain — Fast!” This is the ostensible leader in the ostensible trend among women’s magazines to promote healthy body image — apparently, crash dieting and criticizing very thin women will make you like yourself even more? A rash of TV shows featuring larger people last summer was also heralded as evidence that more realistic beauty standards and less body shame are on their way in, but upon closer inspection, as I wrote then, they did “little to dispel the myth that fat people’s lives are built around dessert and desperation.” While people fretted that new plus-size clothing lines could promote obesity — because giving young women who can’t fit into mainstream sizes the opportunity to dress like their peers might make them forget just how much their bodies are reviled –  several retailers started reducing their offerings above a size 14. Despite a handful of baby steps and dozens of trend pieces inflating their significance, I’m pretty confident that 2009 will not be remembered as The Year of the Happy Fat Chick.

But the surprise hit film “Precious” featured something that truly was a departure from the norm: A genuinely fat, African-American heroine embraced by a far greater audience than anyone expected. Of course, the character’s weight was often seen as one more tragic element of her life story — she’s poor, illiterate, abused by both parents and pregnant by her father — and when it became clear that actress Gabourey Sidibe shared neither that painful history nor that negative view of her own body, the calls for her to be appropriately ashamed of herself began. Wrote Alicia Villarosa at The Root:

According to interviews, including a recent New York magazine, Sidibe is a confident, well-adjusted 25-year-old with a positive body image and no shortage of self-esteem. Readers writing in were overwhelmingly positive… and invariably mentioned her size. One declared, “she’s so incredible and so comfortable in her own skin that she’s probably lined with mink.” GAG!

Villarosa goes on to point out, in case you hadn’t noticed, that Sidibe is “SUPER fat,” and diagnoses her with “psychological issues” — specifically, “an emotional disconnect between the mind and body,” based on the presumption that the actress is an unhealthy comfort eater. “[I]f we just stick to her acting, kudos. But if we’re talking about her size — which has become part of the conversation — are people delusional? A five-foot-something woman tipping the scales at over 300 pounds is not something to celebrate.”

Ah, are you feeling the love? That body image revolution is just around the corner, I can taste it. But only for a second before I GAG!

One real bright spot in the push-pull between baby steps and backlash, though, is Sidibe herself, who continues to exhibit “no shortage of self-esteem,” despite some people’s belief that the only logical explanation for that must be pure self-delusion. In a fabulous interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she puts paid to that assumption, which even “Precious” director Lee Daniels has reinforced, saying to the New York Times, “[Gabby] may be in a state of denial or on a higher plane than the rest of us, but either way, she breaks your heart in the movie.” Says Sidibe, “I was like, ‘What the hell? I’m in denial?’ No, I know what I look like. I’m very much aware.” It’s just that she somehow managed to overcome all the cultural messages that train fat women — especially fat women of color — to believe they couldn’t possibly be attractive to anyone, anywhere, ever.

“It came late, too late in my life,” she says of her positive self-image. “I just know that I was tired. I was tired of thinking less of myself because others did… People always ask me, ‘You have so much confidence. Where did that come from?’ It came from me.” Later, after talking about her recent decision to join a gym — not to lose weight, but to feel better (when she was in the habit of swimming 100 laps a day, she says, she still looked “just like this”) — she adds, “It’s a mind game, not a body game.”

Indeed it is. And it’s a mind game the magazines are playing when they celebrate “healthy bodies” on one page and tell you how to lose five pounds a week on the next. It’s a mind game TV producers are playing when they trumpet the arrival of fat people on prime-time, congratulate themselves for that bold programming decision, then edit those people to look as pathetic and laughable as possible. It’s a mind game the haters are playing when they tell themselves someone who looks like Gabby Sidibe couldn’t possibly like herself, that her apparent confidence and poise must be masking psychological issues, because that attitude just doesn’t fit that body. (Speaking of denial.)

It’s all a mind game, but at least now we have Sidibe out there showing us how to win it. Whenever a fat celebrity attracts attention and acclaim, I gird myself for the seemingly inevitable announcement that she’s become the newest Jenny Craig spokesperson, but Sidibe might just be one who never buckles under the pressure to believe that less of her would be more. “I don’t have any plans of changing,” she says, “because I really, really like myself. It took a lot of work to get here.” Even the long-reigning queen of body shame, Oprah Winfrey, is impressed: “It’s like she’s from another planet, because she’s so evolved, so confident, so secure about who she is.” But the whole point is, she’s not from another planet — she’s just a regular American woman (or was, before “Precious” came along) who got tired of thinking less of herself because others did. So she stopped.

The inspirational value of that not-so-simple action might make Alicia Villarosa gag, but it’s out there anyway. Of all the photoshoots she’s done lately, Sidibe says, “I feel like a model. It justifies everyone in my life who told me I wouldn’t be anything until I lost weight. It justifies that little girl who cried because she didn’t think she could be in front of the camera. And it’s for other girls who feel like they can’t do this or that and feel like they’re not pretty and not worthy of having their photo taken.” As far as I’m concerned, those words coming from her are worth a thousand naked Crystal Renns.

I also loved “Michael Clayton,” a wonderful thriller that exposes the greed and short-sightedness of a giant agrochemical firm. It certainly fed my paranoia while making “Food, Inc.”

On the documentary front, I loved a film by the Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang called “Up the Yangtze.” It is the story of a valley in China being flooded to create a dam. I wasn’t sure if I was watching actors or real people. It turned out to be all real people who felt very comfortable letting the camera into their lives. It had a very theatrical feel. It is a beautiful film.