The 84th Academy Award Nominations

Nominations for the 84th Academy Awards

Best Picture
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Best Director
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life

Best Actor
Demian Bichir - A Better Life
George Clooney - The Descendants
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt - Moneyball

Best Actress
Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Nick Nolte - Warrior
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Max von Sydow - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Descendants - A. Payne & N. Faxon & J. Rash
Hugo - J. Logan
The Ides of March - G. Clooney & G. Heslov & B. Willimon
Moneyball - S. Zaillian & A. Sorkin & S. Chervin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - B. O'Connor & P. Straughan

Best Original Screenplay
The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids - Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
Margin Call - J.C. Chandor
Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
A Separation - Asghar Farhadi

Best Foreign Film
Bullhead, Belgium
Footnote, Israel
In Darkness, Poland
Monsieur Lazhar, Canada
A Separation, Iran

Best Animated Film
A Cat in Paris, Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
Chico & Rita, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
Kung Fu Panda 2, Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Puss In Boots, Chris Miller
Rango, Gore Verbinski

Best Art Direction
The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
War Horse

Best Cinematography
Guillaume Schiffman - The Artist
Jeff Cronenweth - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Robert Richardson - Hugo
Emmanuel Lubezki - The Tree of Life
Janusz Kaminski - War Horse

Best Costume Design
Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

Best Film Editing
The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball

Best Documentary Film
Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated

Best Makeup
Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
The Iron Lady

Best Original Score
John Williams - The Adventures of Tintin
Ludovic Bource - The Artist
Howard Shore - Hugo
Alberto Iglesias - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
John Williams - War Horse

Best Original Song
"Man or Muppet" from The Muppets
"Real in Rio" from Rio

Best Sound Mixing
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

Best Sound Editing
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

Best Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Best Documentary Short
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
God Is the Bigger Elvis
Incident in New Baghdad
Saving Face
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

Best Animated Short
Dimanche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Best Live-Action Short
Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic

Nomination Totals:
Hugo - 11
The Artist - 10
Moneyball - 6
War Horse - 6
The Descendants - 5
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 5
The Help - 4
Albert Nobbs - 3
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - 3
Midnight in Paris - 3
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 3
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - 3
The Tree of Life - 3
Bridesmaids - 2
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - 2
The Iron Lady - 2
My Week with Marilyn - 2
A Separation - 2
My thoughts:

PICTURE - I'm surprised Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close got in, since it received such poor reviews. Stephen Daldry must be friends with many powerful people. His fourth movie in a row has been nominated for Best Picture (Billy Eliott, The House, The Reader), though he didn't get a Director's nod. I'd have to say it's a race between The Artist, The Descendants and Hugo.

DIRECTOR - No David Fincher, no Bennett Miller, no Steven Spielberg. If Scorsese hadn't already won for The Departed, he'd be 100% lock to win, but I think this one's between Hazanavicius and Payne, edge to Payne.

ACTOR - Thrilled for Oldman, happy for Bichir. I haven't seen A Better Life, but it's cool when struggling actors get a sudden boost like that. For the 21st century Frat pack leaders, I'd give the edge to Pitt over Clooney, but overall Dujardin has to be the front-runner.

ACTRESS - Glad to see Rooney Mara made it. Close and Williams take comft in adding more nominations to their resume, but I think this is a battle between Doubt co-stars Meryl Streep and Viola Davis. Davis was the heart of The Help, but it's been, what, thirty years since perennial nominee actually won an Academy Award? Really surprised Charlize Theron didn't make it, or Tilda Swinton, from what I've heard.

SUPPORTING ACTOR - Branagh, Hill and Nolte have the honor of being nominated, but this is a showdown between two legends - Plummer and Von Sydow. Edge to Plummer. Would have liked to see Andy Serkis get in here for Apes.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Showier roles tend to win here (Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost, Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny, Renee Zellweger for Cold Mountain, etc.) so Octavia Spencer could pull it off, but it wouldn't surprise me if Melissa McCarthy's fearless performance was rewarded. Also, Chastain was in six movies this year and could have easily been nominated here for The Tree of Life.

SCREENPLAY - It's between The Descendants, Hugo and Moneyball for Adapted, and I view Original at this point as anyone's guess.

FOREIGN - A Separation is the one making all of the top-ten lists.

ANIMATED - I'm rooting for Rango. I would have put in Arthur Christmas or The Adventures of Tintin before Kung Fu Panda 2.


VISUAL EFFECTS - Would have liked to have seen Captain America get a nod for the way they transformed Chris Evans from 98-pound weakling to the First Avenger.