Reactions to Academy Awards nominations

By The Associated Press - What they said upon learning of Tuesday's Academy Award nominations:

"This is my fifth nomination and I'm more proud of that than all the rest of it, I think. Getting nominated, to me, that's the plateau. After you're nominated, it's like a crap shoot, it's like throwing dice." -- Morgan Freeman, best actor nominee for "Invictus."
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"As soon as I heard, I jumped up and down and for some reason I kept screaming, 'I'm gonna get a car, I'm gonna get a car.' I don't
know why." -- Gabourey Sidibe, best actress nominee for "Precious:
Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire."
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"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." -- Colin Firth, best actor nominee for "A Single Man" (whose other film credits do include a musical, "Mamma Mia!").
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"I'm just going to carry on with my life and be thankful and that's it. My celebration days, which were huge, are now slightly modified, shall we say. At my exalted age I can't quite do the old 24-hour nightly shifts that I used to." Christopher Plummer, age 80, on receiving his first Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actor for his portrayal of Leo Tolstoy in "The Last Station."
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"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." Helen Mirren, nominated for best actress for her role as Tolstoy's wife in "The Last Station."
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"I certainly, if one can give the impression that the impossible is possible, then I am perhaps overwhelmed with joy. But I do think that I hope someday we can lose the modifier and that becomes a moot point whether the person is male or female and they're just filmmakers making statements that they believe in."

Kathryn Bigelow on becoming only the fourth woman nominated for a best director award, for "The Hurt Locker."
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"Maybe with the nomination, people will have a chance to understand what a Palestinian living in Israel is. It will put us on the map." -- Scandar Copti, one of the two directors of "Ajami," nominated for best foreign language film.