Reactions to nominations for the 83rd annual Academy Awards:
"Currently celebrating with my colleagues three feet above the ground. Not used to this much joy, or this much champagne at this hour." -- Colin Firth, best actor nominee for "The King's Speech," speaking to Us Magazine.___"I am so honored and grateful to the Academy for this recognition. It is a wonderful culmination of the ten-year journey with Darren to make this film. Making Black Swan is already the most meaningful experience of my career, and the passion shown for the film has completed the process of communication between artists and audience. I am so thankful for the support we have received and I share this honor with the entire cast and crew of the film, especially Darren Aronofsky." -- Natalie Portman, best actress nominee for "Black Swan," speaking to Us Magazine.___"As an Australian, I'm as excited to be recognized and honored by the Academy as my character must have been when his London speech-therapy business flourished when the future king of England happened to pop by one day." -- Geoffrey Rush, best supporting actor nominee for "The King's Speech."___"I think that what resonated is that it's not a timely story, I think what resonated is that it is a timeless story, one with themes as old as storytelling itself: of friendship and loyalty, of betrayal, power, class, jealousy. These are things that Aeschylus would have written about or Shakespeare would have written about. And it's just lucky for me that neither of those guys were available so I got to write about it." -- Aaron Sorkin, nominated for best adapted screenplay for "The Social Network."___"I'm just hoping that maybe I can get into a party now. I doubt I will be able to though. Us producers, no one recognizes us." -- Dana Brunetti, one of the producers of "The Social Network."___"Well, you just sort of sit there a little stunned at first, and slowly the realization creeps over you and it's, 'Oh my goodness gracious.' This is something I hardly dared dream about over the years and yet it seems to be coming true. I hope the alarm clock doesn't ring and wake me up." -- David Seidler, nominated for best original screenplay for "The King's Speech."
"I tried to act all cool and sleep through it and my dreams woke me up four times, and finally I just accepted the fact that I really cared and I got up and I watched it online." -- Stuart Blumberg, nominated for best original screenplay for "The Kids Are All Right."___"I kept having strange dreams that I was back in like the turn of the century, wearing top hats and things like that, and they were announcing the nominees and they were like, 'No, you weren't nominated,' and I was like, 'Ahhh,' and I was so disappointed, and yet I had to go out and solve a mystery afterwards. It was very strange." -- Chris Sanders, co-writer and co-director of the Oscar-nominated animated film "How to Train Your Dragon."___"It's always very nice, a nice thing. It always does make me feel better but only for a few hours." -- Randy Newman, who has been nominated for more than a dozen Oscars, this year for the song "We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3."___"Ten seems like an awful lot. We don't want to take anyone else's." -- Joel and Ethan Coen, reacting to the 10 Oscar nominations for their film, "True Grit."___"If you get six nominations, including best picture and best actor -- I'd go see that movie. So I think it's enormously important for the film." -- Christian Colson, one of the producers of "127 Hours" on its six nominations.___"What an extraordinary journey this film has taken me on! `Rabbit Hole' has been a labor of love and I'm so thankful to John Cameron Mitchell, David Lindsay-Abaire and the brilliant cast. This nomination reflects all of the heart and soul that these people have put into it and I can't thank them enough." -- Nicole Kidman, nominated for best actress for "Rabbit Hole."___"I'm celebrating with the people who helped get me there -- you and your colleagues in the various forms of press and media that have long witnessed my work and long written and spoken beautiful things about it and really, truly helped me get to this day. Everyone asks about celebrations and glasses of champagne. That I get the opportunity to talk to all of you and say: 'We did it! This is awesome! Look at us now!'" -- Melissa Leo, nominated for best supporting actress for "The Fighter."___"Really, for me, the trick is very much to get out of my own way. Just let the characters sing what needs to be sung and let the score inform the story. I think people appreciate that." -- Composer Alan Menken, winner of eight Academy Awards for best song or score, earned his 19th nomination for writing the music for the song "I See the Light" from the animated film "Tangled."___"There is a very deep emotion in this film -- that's why it's so successful all over the world. ... The audience is moved and thrilled by this so human story. There's not many movies that can do that." -- Composer Alexandre Desplat, nominated for best original score for "The King's Speech."___"For 'Tangled,' it's one of those moments where music and visual and story and character all come together at this one moment. It's a pretty compelling case for why songs make films better." -- Lyricist Glenn Slater, nominated with Alan Menken for the song "I See the Light" from the animated film "Tangled."___
AP Entertainment Writers Sandy Cohen, Derrik J. Lang and Mark Kennedy, and Associated Press Writer John Rogers contributed to this package.