The Academy Award or Oscar nominations were announced today and I thought I’d share my thoughts on them. First of all they were a bit of a let down for me, very predictable and tame.

Hugo was the front-runner with 11 nominations, it was a fun and magical movie and definitely deserves the technical accolades but I feel like there were some fantastic films of 2011 that were completely overlooked. Where was the love for Drive?! Easily my favorite film of the year and all it got was a sound editing nomination! Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn were snubbed!

There were the expected nods, lots of love for The Descendants and The Artist, but the predictability takes the fun right out of it. How about Melissa McCarthy getting a nomination for Bridesmaids!!! It was funny but come on, there were plenty of other options for this category. These nominations feel like forced picks, these actors were campaigning like crazy for them and they feel pretty safe.

I would love to see Brad Pitt win this year, he has been doing some really great work lately and needs to be recognized for that. I would also really like to see Christopher Plummer take the supporting category. I thought that Beginners might get overlooked.

Overall it’s been pretty predictable and boring for the past few years. I just have to hope that there will be some surprises within the categories. I’ll make my predictions in my next post. Let me know if you disagree or if there is someone you think should have made the cut.

Here is the list:

 

Actor in a Leading Role

• Demián Bichir in A Better Life
• George Clooney in The Descendants
• Jean Dujardin in The Artist
• Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Brad Pitt in Moneyball

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn
• Jonah Hill in Moneyball
• Nick Nolte in Warrior
• Christopher Plummer in Beginners
• Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Actress in a Leading Role

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

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Bérénice Bejo in The Artist
• Jessica Chastain in The Help
• Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids
• Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs
• Octavia Spencer in The Help

Animated Feature Film

• A Cat in Paris
• Chico & Rita
• Kung Fu Panda 2
• Puss in Boots
• Rango

Art Direction

• The Artist
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• War Horse

Cinematography

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

Costume Design

• Anonymous Lisy Christl
• The Artist Mark Bridges
• Hugo Sandy Powell
• Jane Eyre Michael O’Connor
• W.E. Arianne Phillips

Directing

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

Documentary (Feature)

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

Documentary (Short Subject)

• 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

Film Editing

• The Artist Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
• The Descendants Kevin Tent
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
• Hugo Thelma Schoonmaker
• Moneyball Christopher Tellefsen

Foreign Language Film

• Bullhead Belgium
• Footnote Israel
• In Darkness Poland
• Monsieur Lazhar Canada
• A Separation Iran

Makeup

• Albert Nobbs
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• The Iron Lady

Music (Original Score)

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

Music (Original Song)

• Man or Muppet from The Muppets
• Real in Rio from Rio

Best Picture

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

Short Film (Animated)

• Dimanche/Sunday Patrick Doyon
• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
• La Luna Enrico Casarosa
• A Morning Stroll Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
• Wild Life Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Short Film (Live Action)

• Pentecost Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane
• Raju Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
• The Shore Terry George and Oorlagh George
• Time Freak Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
• Tuba Atlantic Hallvar Witzø

Sound Editing

• Drive
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• War Horse

Sound Mixing

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Moneyball
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• War Horse

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”

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• The Descendants Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
• Hugo John Logan
• The Ides of March George Clooney, Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon
• Moneyball Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (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