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Precious gets 8 nominations for NAACP awards

CBC News

Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire had a leading eight nominations, including best film, for the 41st NAACP Image Awards announced Wednesday.

The awards designed to celebrate the achievements of people of colour in the arts also tapped The Blind Side, Invictus, Michael Jackson's This is It and The Princess and the Frog with best picture nominations.

Precious, about a poor, illiterate black teen in Harlem who finds hope among a classroom of misfits, earned a best actress nomination for lead Gabourey Sidebe, as well as best supporting actress nominations for Mariah Carey, Mo'Nique and Paula Patton.

Lee Daniels has been named for best director and Geoffrey Fletcher, who adapted the novel to the screen, was nominated for best screenplay.

The film also has a best independent picture nomination, alongside Amreeka, American Violet, Endgame and Medicine for Melancholy.

In the best actress category, Sidebe is competing against Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Sophie Okonedo in Skin, Taraji P. Henson in Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself and Anika Noni Rose for her vocal performance in the animated feature The Princess and the Frog.

The best actor category taps veteran actor Morgan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela in Invictus and perennial favourites Denzel Washington for The Taking of Pelham 123 and Jamie Foxx for Law Abiding Citizen.

Also nominated are British actor Idris Elba for Obsessed and newcomer Quinton Aaron for The Blind Side, a drama about a homeless boy who becomes a NFL draft pick.

Chris Rock's Good Hair has been nominated in the documentary category along with Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and More Than A Game, a feature about basketball player LeBron James.

There are also NAACP awards for television, music and literature. The awards will be handed out Feb. 26.