2012 Oscar Nominations Announced, Internet Collectively Groans
The nominees for the 84th Academy Awards have been revealed, and they aren’t so much surprising as they are infuriating.
The big winners are Hugo (11 nominations), The Artist (10 nominations), Moneyball and War Horse (6 Nominations), The Descendants and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (5 Nominations), The Help and Midnight in Paris (4 Nominations). No real shockers there.
What’s far more interesting are the films and actors that missed out on nominations. As our editor-in-chief, Erlingur, put it: “No Ryan Gosling. No Albert Brooks. No Alan Rickman. No Andy Serkis. No Michael Fassbender. To name only a few. The list of Oscar snubs this year is more impressive than the nominee list.”
But the biggest disgrace in the eyes of Filmophiliacs? The absence of Drive from the Best Film category. A critically reviled, emotional string puppet gets a nod but not Nicolas Winding Refn‘s (also glaringly missing from the Best Director category) celebrated masterpiece. One nomination, for Sound Editing, stings even more than being completely locked out. We’ll have more to say on snubs later today.
C’mon, Oscar voters, take some risks. What’s the point of living if you can’t feel alive?
Check out the entire list below (relevant review links in parenthesis) and remember, the winners will be announced on Sunday, February 26th. We’ll be watching, and silently cursing.
Oh, and not to be completely negative, the prospect of a member of Flight of the Conchords receiving an Academy Award is heartwarming to say the least. If Brett doesn’t win I won’t be crying. Honest.
Best Motion Picture of the Year
The Tree of Life: Nominees to be determined (Reviewed Here)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Achievement in Directing
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Bullhead: Michael R. Roskam (Belgium)
Footnote: Joseph Cedar (Israel)
In Darkness: Agnieszka Holland (Poland)
Monsieur Lazhar: Philippe Falardeau (Canada)
A Separation: Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Best Achievement in Editing
Best Achievement in Art Direction
Best Achievement in Costume Design
Best Achievement in Makeup
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
The Muppets: Bret McKenzie(“Man or Muppet”) (Reviewed Here)
Rio: Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, Siedah Garrett(“Real in Rio”)
Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Best Documentary, Features
Best Documentary, Short Subjects
God Is the Bigger Elvis: Rebecca Cammisa, Julie Anderson
Posts From Friends
The Academy is taking risk. They’re nominating The Tree Of Life best picture and direction.
Not really, Malick is a celebrated auteur. He was nominated for The Thin Read Line and Tree of Life was a long awaited, and largely critically adored film (Heck, I gave it 4.5 stars). It won best film at Cannes. Am I glad that it got nominated? Yes. Was it one of the top 10 films of last year? No. Is it anything more than a token nomination because it was a disputed film? Probably not.
Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks, Drive.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Will Reiser’s script, 50/50.
The Adventures of Tintin.
So many snubs, so much anger. But I will admit that there are some nice surprises in there, such as Jonah Hill and Melissa McCarthy.
[...] we finally have the nominees for the 2012 Oscars. There aren’t many surprises but there are some glaring snubs. We seek to rectify this [...]
I would put Gosling on the Best Actor list, but Fassbender was The Man this year. Forget Shame, his Magneto touched a brother (just kidding.. and not).
I don’t know about Midnight… it was quaint, but played up to the artsy crowd. Drive could easily replace it in my opinion. Truthfully though, Drive left me wanting something (not a neat ending, but something). These awards always leave me disappointed.
[...] with some Oscar gems of years past. See also Winter’s Bone and of course our reviews of films nominated this year, our Top Five: Oscar Special on the leading Actresses to catch up with us. You don’t want to [...]
[...] To brush up on the main issues ahead of the event, be sure to check our recent Roundtable post on the Oscars. We also have the entire nominations up here. [...]