2012 Oscar Nominations: ‘Hugo’ and ‘The Artist’ Lead

A very short while ago, Jennifer Lawrence from the upcoming adaptation of The Hunger Games joined Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak to reveal this year’s Oscar nominees. Like usual, cinephiles the world over greeted the announcement with fervent anticipation.

Not straying from the norm, Academy voters threw both expected and unexpected results our way. As for the expected, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo dominated the nominations with 11, including mentions in Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. Right behind it was Best Picture frontrunner The Artist with 10 nominations. Perhaps there’s more to be said for the shocking inclusions and omissions, however, as our own John Gilpatrick even referred to the “season [as being] defined by unpredictability” in his final nominations predictions yesterday.

Many prognosticators were conservative with their picks, going for maybe about six or seven Best Picture nominees, but nine films made the cut this year. The biggest surprise, perhaps, was that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Stephen Daldry’s drama about a boy whose father died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, earned a Best Picture bid. Many believed that tepid reaction to the film had taken it out of the Oscar race, but voters said otherwise. Max von Sydow also picked up a Supporting Actor nomination for his work in the film.

Among the other big shockers is the snub for Albert Brooks’ performance in Drive. Yes, the one actor who many believed had a small chance of taking down Christopher Plummer didn’t even get nominated. The Actress race also threw in an unexpected turn, opting to nominate The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo herself, Rooney Mara, instead of giving a shout-out to Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk About Kevin.

But those weren’t the only shockers to be found in the nominations, and we’ve got the nominations for every single category below.

Best Picture

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

 

Best Director

Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris)
Michel Hazanvicius (The Artist)
Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life)
Alexander Payne (The Descendants)
Martin Scorsese (Hugo)

 

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Demian Bichir (A Better Life)
George Clooney (The Descendants)
Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)
Brad Pitt (Moneyball)

 

Best Actress in a Leading Role

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 Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn)
Jonah Hill (Moneyball)
Nick Nolte (Warrior)
Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)

 

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

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

 

Best Original Screenplay

Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids)
J.C. Chandor (Margin Call)
Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris)
Asghar Farhadi (A Separation)

 

Best Adapted Screenplay

Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash (The Descendants)
John Logan (Hugo)
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon (The Ides of March)
Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian (Moneyball)
Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)

 

Best Art Direction

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

 

Best Cinematography

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

 

Best Costume Design

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

 

Best Film Editing

Anne Sophie-Bion (The Artist)
Kevin Tent (The Descendants)
Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
Thelma Schoonmaker (Hugo)
Christopher Tellefson (Moneyball)

 

Best Makeup

Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston, and Matthew W. Mungle (Albert Nobbs)
Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk, and Yolanda Toussieng (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2)
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland (The Iron Lady)

 

Best Sound Editing

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

 

Best Sound Mixing

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

 

Best Visual Effects

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

 

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 (Bret McKenzie)
“Real in Rio” from Rio (Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, and Siedah Garrett)

 

Best Animated Feature

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

 

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 Foreign Language Feature

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

 

Best Animated Short

Dimianche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

 

Best Documentary Short

The Barber of Birmingham
God is the Bigger Elvis
Incident in New Baghdad
Saving Face
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

 

Best Live Action Short

Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic