84th Academy Award Nominations

So they’re in. The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards. And in a very unusual move for the Academy they have offered some surprise. First of all, it’s flag waving time: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has found significant nominations, including one for Gary Oldman which is just absolutely fantastic. There are also some surprising inclusions for The Tree of Life which has got nominations in the Best Picture and Best Director categories. Not so surprising though is The Artist with 10 nominations and the leader, Hugo, with 11 nominations.

However, there are surprise shut outs. Michael Fassbender is not nominated and I think the Academy favoured Demian Bichir over him. A Better Life (which I haven’t seen) seems like a more comfortable Academy friendly film than Shame. Same goes for Tilda Swinton, who has been notoriously snubbed presumably due to the subject matter of her film We Need to Talk About Kevin. Albert Brooks has also been savagely shut out too for his excellent performance in Drive. Another surprise is that Tintin has failed to turn up in the Animated Feature category but has somehow ended up with a nomination for its score (?).

John Williams also got a nomination for War Horse, which turned up in the Best Picture category as well and Madonna’s W.E. has also got a nomination for Costume Design, which clearly she managed to get through bribery. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo also has more nominations than expected, nothing for Fincher or the score but cinematography, editing, sound and most excellently Rooney Mara, have received nods.

Most egregiously is seeing Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close with a Best Picture nomination, but I suppose sometimes we need a Driving Miss Daisy in there to tell us what a good film looks like. Let’s just hope it doesn’t pull off a Miss Daisy and win (it won’t). All in all I think the Academy have been very bold and original in their choices.

You can see the full list below, the Academy Awards will be held on February 26th.

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

BEST ACTOR
Demián Bichir – A Better Life
George Clooney – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt -Moneyball

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

BEST ANIMATED FILM
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

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

ART DIRECTION
The Artist – Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Hugo – Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
Midnight in Paris – Anne Seibel, Hélène Dubreuil
War Horse – Rick Carter, Lee Sandales

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

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

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 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

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Bullhead – Belgium
Footnote – Israel
In Darkness – Poland
Monsieur Lazhar – Canada
A Separation – Iran

BEST MAKEUP
Albert Nobbs – Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin
The Iron Lady – Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

BEST 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

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Man or Muppet – The Muppets by Bret McKenzie
Real in Rio – Rio Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, Siedah Garrett

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
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

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
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

BEST SOUND EDITING
Drive – Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Ren Klyce
Hugo – Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
War Horse – Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
Hugo – Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
Moneyball – Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
War Horse – Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
Hugo – Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
Real Steel – Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
Rise of the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier