Oscar nominee reactions

“It’s so rare to find a female character that has some kind of journey and changes as a result. So many times, they’re just accessory roles, the girlfriend or someone who performs some kind of plot function. A female character that had that much going on was rare.”

-- Best actress, “An Education”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

“I’m very happy and honored for Christopher, myself and our film. I think Tolstoy himself would have been perplexed by all this, but Sofya, his wife, would have been over the moon. So in that spirit, I am too.”

-- Best actress, “The Last Station”  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

“I am proud and grateful to stand with these women who have given such a range of beautiful, indelible performances this year!”

-- Best actress, “Julie & Julia”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s a tremendous compliment for the cast and crew who’ve worked so hard under such arduous conditions to realize this movie on screen. I think every day was a kind of brinkmanship between the sandstorms and windstorms and the punishing Middle Eastern heat. ... On a daily basis, there were a few impediments in our way. Not to mention, it all began with Mark Boal risking his life to go to Baghdad in 2004 to spend time with the bomb squad and bring back these incredible stories.”

-- Best director, “The Hurt Locker”  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

“It hit me that I’ve been working so many years for this moment. Now that it’s here, what do I do? What do I do with my life now? ... It makes you think about the things you missed working for this moment.”

-- Best director, “Precious, Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

“I don’t know if I was expecting it or not. I’ve certainly been grateful for all of the attention thus far. ... I was fine until about the 10 minutes before the announcement came and my feet started sweating profusely, so I guess it meant something to me.”

-- Best supporting actress, “Up in the Air”  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

“I am thrilled beyond words to be nominated with these talented and inspiring women. Being involved in a film as special as ‘Up in the Air’ was a dream come true. I am overwhelmed and honored by this nomination and am so grateful to be able to share this experience with George, Vera and Jason.”

-- Best supporting actress, “Up in the Air”  (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)

On “Avatar”: “Wow. What a movie! That’s like a whole new thing. One day, they’ll be able to -- wait. Not one day. I’m sure they could do it now, if they wanted: Actors will kind of be a thing of the past. We’ll be turned into combinations. A director will be able to say, ‘I want 60% Clooney; give me 10% Bridges, and throw some Charles Bronson in there.’ They’ll come up with a new guy who will look like nobody who has ever lived, and that person or thing will be huge. It’s pretty amazing.”

-- Best actor, “Crazy Heart”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

“I was on the ‘Today’ show with Kathryn [Bigelow] and Anthony [Mackie]. So it was a little weird because we had a camera in our face while we were watching the announcements. ... But, uh, wow, wow, wow. Just to see all that transpire with this little movie is just a triumph. An absolute triumph.”

-- Best actor, “The Hurt Locker”  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

I’m used to the recognition in the theater; I’m not quite used to it in film.”

-- Best actor, “The Last Station”  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

“I thought I was managing my expectations, but on hearing the news I discovered new and unfamiliar vocal tones. Perhaps I should do another musical.”

-- Best actor, “A Single Man”  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Broderick Johnson (left): “Andrew and I were both talking (on the phone) this morning as we watched, and we had to TiVo it and run it back to make sure we heard it correctly.”

Andrew Kosove: “It turns out the receiver did have two feet in-bounds.”

-- Producers, best picture, “The Blind Side”  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

“I have just been told that I am nominated for an Oscar. My first reaction was to turn around and ask if it’s really me that they are talking about. Then, maybe, at the same moment, I became a little bewildered. I think of all these actors, all of the directors who have been in this same place, all of those lovely people who have made me dream and want to do what I do today and, in many respects, brought meaning to my life. So what am I feeling? In short, immense gratitude.”

-- Director / co-writer, best foreign language film, “The Prophet”  (Megan Spelman / Los Angeles Times)

“I’ve been in this business a very long time. Back when I directed ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ for Tim Burton, there wasn’t an animated film category, so I’m grateful to be nominated. It wasn’t a total surprise, but it was with great relief because there are so many great films out there.”

-- Writer/director, best animated film, “Coraline”  (Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times)

“For those of us who grew up loving this medium, it’s quintessentially film-making. You could not do this in any other medium, the work that animation is capable of. We’ve always had this great community of animation fans. We’ve always approached them as movies first that just happen to be animated. I think [this] sends a message that our fellow filmmakers see it the same way.”

-- Co-writer, best picture and best original screenplay, “Up”  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

“The thing that flashed through my mind is that I’m grateful to Kathryn [Bigelow] and [producer] Nic [Chartier], when believing the movie would get made was like believing a fairy godmother. Iraq movies were not exactly flying off the shelf. And how many writers out there have their passion projects that don’t get made? I distinctly remember being flabbergasted that they wanted to put up the money.”

-- Writer, best picture and best original screenplay, “The Hurt Locker”  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)