Oscar Nominations

With the Golden Globes now past us, it is time for the much awaited Oscar nominations which were announced around 1.30pm GMT today. The Globes have already given us a pretty good indication of what films will be claiming the most nominations but there is always a few suprises that sneak in.

Here is a list of the nominees:

Best Picture
The ArtistThe Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo 
Midnight in ParisMoneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse 

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

Best Actor
Demián Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

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 Supporting Actor 
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, WarriorChristopher Plummer, Beginners 
Max Von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

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

Best Original Screenplay
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation

Best Adapted Screenplay
Alexander Payne, Jim Rash & Nat Faxon, The Descendants
John Logan, Hugo 
George Clooney, Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon, The Ides of March
Aaron Sorkin & Steven Zaillian, Moneyball 
Peter Straughan & Bridget O’Connor, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Animated Film
The Adventures of Tintin
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango 

Best Foreign Language Film
Bullhead (Belgium)
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
A Separation (Iran)
Footnote (Israel)
In Darkness (Poland)

As expected there are plenty of nominations for The Descendants and The Artist (I am finally seeing The Descendants on Sunday). The main surprise for me is War Horse being included in the best film category, lets be honest if you take Spielberg's name off the movie its not going to get nominated. Being completely biased as I loved the book, glad to see Moneyball is nominated for best picture and best adapted screenplay with Pitt and especially Hill being nominated also. In terms of British films I think its great that Gary Oldman has been recognised for his portrayal of George Smiley in TTSS.

As you draw your own conclusions, I will leave you with these two thoughts: Hugo got the most Oscar nominations with 12 and Transformers 3 got more nominations than Drive. And people say I'm cynical!!