Oscars 2012

[on:]

If anyone cares, this year's Oscar nominations are in:

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

'The Artist' will win this. I'm almost offended that 'War Horse' has been nominated as it was drivel. I'm also annoyed that 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' has been nominated because now I'll have to watch it despite it only having a 6.2 score on IMDb and a 48% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's not a particularly wonderful selection of films in all honesty, but I'll take it as something of a reflection of 2011 not being the best year for films in general.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir for A Better Life
George Clooney for The Descendants
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt for Moneyball

I'm glad to see Gary Oldman nominated here. I didn't like 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' but there's no denying that the acting was superb and it's nice to see it get a shout-out when I thought the Oscars would overlook it. My guess is that this award will go to Jean Dujardin.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis for The Help
Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn

This one comes down to Viola Davis and Meryl Streep. I think Meryl will take it and rightfully so. 'The Iron Lady' was a terrible film, but she was still excellent in it.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill for Moneyball
Nick Nolte for Warrior
Christopher Plummer for Beginners
Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo for The Artist
Jessica Chastain for The Help
Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer for The Help

I'm really pleased to see Jessica Chastain nominated here. Her performance in 'The Help' was fantastic. It brought a lot of depth to what could have very easily been a completely two-dimensional role. She's my favourite female supporting role of the year but she has a snowball's chance in hell of actually winning. It'll go to Octavia Spencer, no doubt. I'm not sure what I think of Melissa McCarthy's nomination either. Personally, I think Kristen Wiig is more deserving of award recognition for her more layered, comedic performance in the film as opposed to Melissa's out and out pantomime acting, but whatever - it's not like she wasn't good.

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

This'll go to Martin Scorsese. Personally, I'm not convinced I'd give the award to any of these nominees when Richard Ayoade's work on 'Submarine' was such a revelation, but to each his own. I'm also very surprised that David Fincher isn't nominated for 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' seeing as they're giving that film some credit here and there and his directing was better than all of these nominees whose work I've actually seen yet.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Margin Call
Midnight in Paris
A Separation

This'll go to 'The Artist'.

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
The Descendants
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

And this'll go to 'The Descendants'.

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

I'm very pleased with these nominations. I thought 'Tintin' was destined for an undeserved win after its wins at other awards ceremonies but it's not even nominated. And I'm glad that 'Cars 2' has been completely shut out because it wasn't worthy of a nomination.
I'm really glad to see 'Puss in Boots' getting recognition and I think 'Rango' has the best chances of winning which is rightfully so because it's the best animated film of the last year.

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Bullhead
Footnote
In Darkness
Monsieur Lazhar
A Separation

'A Separation' will win.

Best Achievement in Cinematography
The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree of Life
War Horse

I've no idea which film will actually win this one, but 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is the most deserving.

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

Again, 'The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo' deserves to win, but I'm not certain that it actually will.

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

I can see this going to 'The Artist' or possibly 'Hugo'.

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

Best Achievement in Makeup
Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
The Iron Lady

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
The Artist
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

Without having seen 'The Artist', I think 'Tintin' deserves to win this one - but 'The Artist' will probably actually win it given its reputation and the way that it's very reliant on its score. I'm quite sad at the number of wonderful scores that've been ignored here, though. 'Rango', 'Contagion', 'Puss in Boots', 'Crazy, Stupid, Love.', 'Kung Fu Panda 2', 'Cars 2' and 'Hanna' all had fantastic music - not that the Oscars would ever give an award to music by The Chemical Brothers.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
The Muppets
Rio

Only two nominees here which is odd. Especially seeing as 'Winnie the Pooh' had several songs far more worthy than anything from 'Rio'. Hell, 'Star Spangled Man' from 'Captain America' was far more worthy than the music from 'Rio'.

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

'Transformers' deserves this one but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't win. They never give the small technical awards to the right film.

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

Again, 'Transformers' deserves to win this but it'll probably go to something like 'War Horse' or 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

Best Achievement in 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

If 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' doesn't win this, the Oscars will lose every bit of what little credibility they still have.

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

Best Documentary, Shorts
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 Short Film, Animated
Dimanche
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

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


So yeah, that's that. Personally, I'm really disappointed in the way that 'Submarine', 'Melancholia' and '50/50' were pretty much completely left out but I'm glad that 'Drive' barely got a look in. I did not care for 'Drive'. It's been quite a boring year for films, hasn't it? Still 2012 is going to be an incredible filmic year, so wooh and such!

[Reply #1 on:]

Midnight In Paris needs to win Best Picture. It won't, but it needs to.

[Reply #2 on:]

I... don't care about the Oscars.

[Reply #3 on:]

You have The Artist as a deadlock for Best Original Screenplay, which is completely wrong. Woody Allen's racking up all of the writing awards, he just won the Golden Globe, I don't see him losing it.

Also, War Horse deserves to be among the Best Picture nominees, but Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Tree of Life probably shouldn't be there.


And I'm glad to see Jonah Hill nominated, but this is a guaranteed award for Plummer. He's never won an Oscar, and it's about time. Interestingly enough, if he wins and then could somehow get a Grammy, he'd then EGOT.

[Reply #4 on:]

'The Tree of Life' is far more deserving than 'War Horse'.

[Reply #5 on:]

I will read the rest later but the nomination that struck me as out there was Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids. Ok she was good, but not that good in a movie that definitely wasn't as good as the praise it's gotten.

I'm surprised Tintin isn't nominated for animated feature, it was superb animation. I personally would like to see Rooney Mara win for Best Actress but I think any of the nominees would suffice (except Meryl, I mean she's good but she gets so much credit as it is.) As for the nominated actresses, like I said Melissa McCarthy, WTF?, I hope one of the actresses from The Help gets it. I agree with Turnip in that Jessica Chastain was so good in that movie, I think she was my favorite character, but any of them could win because that was a very well acted film. I can't comment on really anything else because I actually didn't see a lot of the Oscar nominated movies this year. Although I do want to see The Artist if not for that adorable dog Uggie.

But having said all this I don't think I've sat own and watched the Oscars in its entirety in years. Most of the time I don't even care, the Oscars are Hollywood politics that I don't wish to involve myself in because the Academy makes stupid choices in who gets nominated and especially who wins.

[Reply #6 on:]

Jonah Hill for Moneyball
Nick Nolte for Warrior

Lol WTF.

Also, Panda 2 > Rango.

[Reply #7 on:]

There's an article on IMDB explaining why there are only 2 Original Song nominees this year. It doesn't really matter to me because "Muppet of a Man" is a fantastic song with or without and Oscar and I will be singing it for years to come.