The 2012 Oscar Nominations

The Hollywood award season continued today with the announcement of the nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards.

I think there were a few surprises, but looking over the nominees here, I think they went pretty much as expected...at least how I expected anyways. I now have 33 days to get all caught up on the nominated films that I have yet to see. Last year, I didn't see The King's Speech until the afternoon of the Oscars! Hopefully, I won't cut it as close this year! 

The Nominees are:

BEST PICTURE
The Artist
The Descendants

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

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Demián Bichir - A Better Life 

George Clooney - The Descendants 

Jean Dujardin - The Artist 

Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 

Brad Pitt - Moneyball

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn 

Jonah Hill - Moneyball 

Nick Nolte - Warrior 

Christopher Plummer - Beginners 

Maxvon Sydow - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Rooney Mara -The Girl with th e Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Bérénice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots

Rango

DIRECTING
The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants - Alexander Payne
Hugo - Martin Scorsese
Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick

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

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

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

As always, a full list of nominees can be found on Oscar.com 

The 84th Academy Awards will be held on February 26th on abc.