Be a Critic: Share Your Opinion About Movies to win a Blu-Ray Player

   By SheSpeaksTeam  Feb 21, 2012

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The 84th Annual Academy Awards are this coming Sunday, so what better time to look back and reflect on some of the biggest nomination surprises for this year? While choosing nominees for each of the categories is a hard and dubious process, and everyone deserving of a nomination can’t receive one. It seems that every year the Academy overlooks some obvious nominee choices.

Who would you pick? Do you agree our list of actors below were overlooked in the nominations this year?

Now you can share your favorite movie review to be entered for a chance to win one of two BluRay DVD players!  See below for details, and good luck!

Here are our picks for the biggest Oscar “snubs” of the year:

• Kirsten Dunst - Best Actress for Melancholia: Without a doubt one of the most interesting films from this past year, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia tells the story of two sisters who find their already strained relationship challenged when a rogue planet threatens to collide with the Earth. Dunst delivered a career altering performance as the younger sister, Justine, who suffers from severe and debilitating depression. However, her fantastic performance was not recognized when the Academy announced their nominations. This could be attributed as backlash to Von Trier's inappropriate Nazi comments when he and Dunst were getting interviewed at the Cannes Film Festival.
• Leonardo Dicaprio - Best Actor for J. Edgar: Directed by Clint Eastwood, this film received mixed reviews from critics.  However, Leonardo Dicaprio has been universally praised for his performance as the titular character, J. Edgar Hoover, and was nominated for Best Actor in these three award events: Golden Globes, Critic's Choice, and Screen Actors Guild (SAG). His nominations in these three categories make is lack of an Oscar nom surprising.
• Shailene Woodley - Best Supporting Actress for The Descendants: This is Woodley's first movie role. In it she plays George Clooney's eldest daughter, Alex. The film tells the story of a land baron (Clooney) who tries to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife suffers a boating accident and now lies in a coma. Woodley was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes and the Critic's Choice Awards, but failed to snag an Oscar nom, despite the Academy's loves of young actor nominations.
• David Fincher - Best Director for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo:  Best Picture and Best Director usually go hand in hand at the Oscars, so it wasn't that surprising that Fincher didn't receive a Best Director nom when Girl With The Dragon Tattoo failed to gain on for Best Picture. However, he should have. Based on the Stieg Larson novel and a remake of the 2009 Swedish film, this film tells the story of a journalist who gets help from a young computer hacker in his search for a woman who has been missing for 40 years.  The film is dark, visceral, and gritty and includes Fincher's unique opening credit sequence,  using symbols that have meaning in the film.
• Tilda Swinton - Best Actress for We Need to Talk About Kevin: Based on the novel of the same name, This movie tells the story of a mother (Swinton) who tries to deal with her grief and feelings of responsibility after her teenage son goes on a high school killing spree. Swinton delivered a powerful and critically acclaimed performance that was nominated for both the Golden Globe and SAG for Best Actress, making her lack of Oscar nomination even more surprising.
• The Adventures of Tintin for Best Animated Feature:  The film was nominated for a Critic's Choice Award and even won the Golden Globe for its animation, yet the Academy failed to give it recognition for its achievements. Perhaps stranger still is that the film was nominated for an Oscar for best Original Score.
• The Help for Best Adapted Screenplay: Another surprise came when Director and Writer, Tate Taylor, was not nominated for his work with The Help. Taylor's screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by Kathryn Stockett. Taylor's script has his own flair, yet still stays true to the themes that made the novel so great, so when it was announced that he hadn't received a nomination, it was a bit shocking.

Now we'd like to hear from you! What movies do you love? What movies do you not care for? Were you surprised by any of the nominees or non-nominees at this year's Oscars? Are you planning to throw an Oscar Party? To be entered to win one of our great prizes this week, create a review for a movie of your choice. Reviews must be submitted by 6pm EST on February 27th, 2012. Good luck!

 Prizes:

Toshiba BDX2150 Wifi-Ready Blu-ray Disc Player

LG BD630 Network Blu-ray Disc Player

*The contest starts February 21, 2012 and ends February 27, 2012, at 6:00 p.m. Must be a US resident. No purchase necessary.

GOOD LUCK!