If you’re anything like us, one of the first things you did when you woke up Tuesday morning was check out the announcement of the 2010 Academy Award nominations. And if you’re really like us, you were a bit disappointed with the list.

We’ve known for a while that the Academy planned to nominate ten films for best picture this year instead of the usual five. Unfortunately, this was a really, really weak year for mainstream film. Out of the ten, we consider six to be immediate throw-aways (Avatar, An Education, Precious, The Blind Side, A Serious Man, Up), leaving only four solid contenders (Up in the Air, Inglourious Basterds, The Hurt Locker, District 9).

Acting has also seen better years. The nominees this year include low points like Morgan Freeman (Best Actor) and Matt Damon (Best Supporting) in Invictus (both played themselves with African accents), Sandra Bullock (Best Actress) in The Blind Side (the chick from Miss Congeniality and The Net? Really???), and Stanley Tucci (Best Supporting) in The Lovely Bones (great actor, not his best role or film).

High notes include Jeff Bridges and Woody Harrelson finally getting some much overdue love (Best Actor, Crazy Heart and Best Supporting, The Messenger respectively), Carey Mulligan (Best Actress) for her breakthrough role in An Education, and Christoph Waltz (Best Supporting, Inglourious Basterds) and Mo’Nique (Best Supporting, Precious) as our only two real locks this year.

In one of the biggest travesties since LOTR: Return of the King, Avatar has beennominated for NINE f-ing awards (Best Picture, Director, Original Score, Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects). As entertaining and visually awe-inspiring as it was, there was nothing at all original about the score or the screenplay, and putting it up against Tarantino and Reitman is just insulting.

We still have a few major films to watch, as well as a lot of foreign, documentary, and short nominees. Expect to see our official preview, along with our personal Oscar ballots, in a few weeks. Until then, to see the full list of nominees click here.

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