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The nominations for the 2012 Academy Awards are in, and HUGO led the way with 11 noms, including best picture, director and screenplay. Based on Brian Selznick’s illustrated children’s novel, if you squint a bit, it qualifies as a “graphic novel” movie.

The animated films list is a bit of a surprise: Steven Spielberg won’t get to correct his Golden Globes gaffe of forgetting to thank Hergé in his acceptance — the mocap extravaganza wasn’t even nominated. Instead the indie releases A CAT IN PARIS and CHICO & RITA were selected. The former hasn’t even opened here yet but looks cool.

There had been a great deal of debate over whether mocap qualified as animation — this year the academy voters said “NO!” although one look at TINTIN’s busy, frantic action would prove as physics-defying as any Road Runner short. TINTIN’s only nomination came for its score by John Williams — that’s also the only nomination for a comic book movie of any kind unless you count HUGO.

In the animated short list, sometime comicker, Pixar’s Enrico Casarosa was nominated for his short “La Luna.” As in past years, The Beat will be helping you bust your Oscar voting pool by handicapping this tie-breaking category.

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON received three nominations, for sound, sound editing, and special effects. REAL STEEL, the movie in which Hugh Jackman is a robot, also received a nomination in the sfx category. The final Harry Potter outing, DEATHLY HALLOWS 2, also received three.

Figwit a.k.a. Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords got nominated for his “Man or Muppet” song from the Muppets, beating out Madonna and Elton John. He gets our Nerd of the Week award.

Oh and our pick for Best Picture? THE DESCENDANTS, hands down the best movie of awards season.

Best Picture
“The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer
“The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer
“The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
“Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
“Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
“Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
“The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined
“War Horse” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

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” Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
“Chico & Rita” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
“Kung Fu Panda 2” Jennifer Yuh Nelson
“Puss in Boots” Chris Miller
“Rango” Gore Verbinski

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

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” 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

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

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

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” 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

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

1 COMMENT

  1. I think the argument over whether MoCap qualifies as animation is ridiculous. CGI animation is essentially puppetry, shifting already-drawn bones and verticies manipulated through calculations. Saying MoCap isn’t animation is like saying that marrionetting isn’t puppetry. MoCap is simply a different method of inputting those calculations’ data.

  2. No nomination best animation for TinTin, but KungFu Panda 2 does… reality defies logic again and again.

    I had to stop KungFu Panda 2 after 20 minutes, horrible! (And I loved part 1)

  3. This is easily the strongest year in recent memory for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Those races are both packed with outstanding performances.

    The best movie of the year, hands down, is “The Artist.” “Hugo” is a close second, but “The Artist” is just something on an entirely different level. I’m actually disappointed “Warrior” didn’t get a Best Picture nod. That movie was wonderful, too. Better than the muddled “Tree of Life.”

    Gary Oldman should win for “Tinker, Tailor….” His performance in that movie was extraordinary.

  4. For Best Animatated Feature: Rango all the way, nuff said.

    That aside you know who the real nominees for Best Picture are by looking at Best Editing.the only one I disagree with is Moneyball, I would switch that out with Take Shelter.

  5. The director for Belgium’s entry for Best Foreign Film “Bullhead” wanted to be a comic book artist but never did.
    We did a short comic once (there, that’s MY claim to fame :)

  6. YAY, William Joyce! Too bad for Pixar, I busted a gut watching “Small Fry”!

    The Best Picture nomination rules (Rule 17) were changed this year.

    Range: five to ten films.
    Requirement: more than 5% of votes cast.

    Rule 7 covers Animated Feature.

    Rule 16.IV.C explains why there are only two nominees for Best Song. (I thought “Life’s a Happy Song” was better, and both Madonna and Elton John got snubbed, so there will not be a reprise of their Golden Globes feud. Actually, NONE of the five Golden Globe nominees were selected by the Academy. Were those songs ORIGINAL?)

    The Academy will once again screen the short features at the Lighthouse for the Blind in NYC (also in DC and LA). Shorts International and Magnolia will once again offer all ten shorts in movie theaters. (Older editions are available on DVD from Magnolia.)

  7. La Luna’s a brilliant short. The general public won’t get to see it until BRAVE comes out this summer, but I’m really happy that it got the nomination for Enrico Casarosa.