2012 OSCAR NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

This morning, Academy President, Tom Sherak and last year's nominee for Best Actress, Jennifer Lawrence announced this year's selections for the 2012 Academy Awards. Since the rules where changed once again where the nominations for Best Picture would be based on the total number of first place votes a film receives which means that the complete nominations will be no fewer than five but no more than ten. This year we have nine competing for that honor and it's a nice collection of films. My favorite is definitely "The Artist" although I still need to see "War Horse" and "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" but I still really doubt my opinion is gonna change.

Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" received the most nominations with eleven and there were plenty of first timers that were recognized such as this year's golden girl, Jessica Chastain for "The Help" as well as for Octavia Spencer who is competing against her in the Best Supporting Actress category, Jonah Hill for his fine work in "Moneyball" and Gary Oldman finally received his first career nomination for his terrific performance in "Tinker Tailor Solider Spy".

There were certainly a few surprise nominations such as the critically mixed, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", Best Supporting Actress, Melissa McCarthy and the screenplay for "Bridesmaids", the acting nods for Nick Nolte and Demian Bichir, although it really shouldn't have been too much of a shock since they were both nominated for SAG Awards but there were some great performances that were overlooked like Michael Fassbender in "Shame", Leonardo DiCaprio in "J. Edgar" or Ryan Gosling for any of his fine work last year.

The 84th Annual Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2012 and will be hosted by Billy Crystal who returns to do the show for the first time since 2004.

Here is the complete list of nominations:

Best Picture:
"War Horse"
"The Artist"
"Moneyball,"
"The Descendants"
"The Tree of Life"
"Midnight in Paris"
"The Help"
"Hugo"
"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 Actor:
Demian Bichir, "A Better Life"
George Clooney, "The Descendants"
Jean Dujardin, "The Artist"
Gary Oldman, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"
Brad Pitt, "Moneyball"

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

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

Writing (Adapted Screenplay):
"The Descendants" Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
"Hugo" Screenplay by John Logan
"The Ides of March" Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
"Moneyball" Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin Story by Stan Chervin
"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" Screenplay by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay):
"The Artist" Written by Michel Hazanavicius
"Bridesmaids" Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
"Margin Call" Written by J.C. Chandor
"Midnight in Paris" Written by Woody Allen
"A Separation" Written by Asghar Farhadi

Foreign Language Film:
"Bullhead" Belgium
"Footnote" Israel
"In Darkness" Poland
"Monsieur Lazhar" Canada
"A Separation" Iran

Animated Feature:
"A Cat in Paris"
"Chico & Rita"
"Kung Fu Panda 2"
"Puss in Boots"
"Rango"

Art Direction:
"The Artist," Production Design: Laurence Bennett, Set Decoration: Robert Gould
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2," Production Design: Stuart Craig, Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan"
"Hugo," Production Design: Dante Ferretti, Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
"Midnight in Paris," Production Design: Anne Seibel, Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil
"War Horse," Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: 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

Documentary (Feature):
"Hell and Back Again" Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
"If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
"Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Pina" Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
"Undefeated" TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Documentary (Short Subject):
"The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement" Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
"God Is the Bigger Elvis" Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
"Incident in New Baghdad" James Spione
"Saving Face" Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
"The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

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

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

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" Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
"Real in Rio" from "Rio" Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Animated Short Film:
"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

Live Action Short Film:
"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" 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

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

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