Edited by Lester Brathwaite on
The nominees for the 84th annual Academy Awards were announced this morning and most importantly, Melissa McCarthy was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Bridesmaids. Everything else…eh.

I always love when a comedic performance gets some recognition and while the film was excluded from the list of NINE Best Picture nominees, Kristen Wiig scored a nod for her brilliant screenplay with Annie Mumolo. Meanwhile, if that trash Diablo Cody can win for Juno, Wiig might want to ready her acceptance speech.
Hugo leads the pack with 11 nominations, including Best Director for Martin Scorsese – his seventh career Best Director nom and ninth overall — and Best Picture. It will compete against The Artist – a close second with 10 nominations — and out of seemingly nowhere, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which has garnered mixed reviews and has been pretty much absent during awards season. But, c’mon, it’s a 9/11 movie, who’s really surprised?
Other Best Picture contenders include Steven Spielberg’s critically-mixed War Horse, Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life — which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes a while back –, The Help, Moneyball, The Descendants and Woody Allen‘s Midnight in Paris.
Allen, it should be noted, snatched his 22nd and 23rd Oscar nods. Take notes, kids.
Also racking up an ungodly amount of Oscar gold this year is (unsurprisingly) Meryl Streep, who scored her 17th Academy Award nomination for her role in The Iron Lady. She will face off against Michelle Williams, Viola Davis, frequent nemesis Glenn Close and surprise nominee Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Tilda Swinton was once again robbed of a nomination — this time for We Need to Talk About Kevin.
The Best Actor category has BFFs George Clooney and Brad Pitt going head-to-head, while relative unknown Demián Bichir snuck in for the little-seen indie film, A Better Life. The Artist‘s Jean Dujardin, fresh off his Golden Globe win, is also nominated and after decades of generally shutting shit down, Gary Oldman scored his first Oscar nomination for the British film, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Check out the full list of nominees below:
BEST PICTURE
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse
LEAD ACTOR
Demián Bichir – A Better Life
George Clooney – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt – Moneyball
LEAD 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 DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Alexander Payne – The Descendants
Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh – My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Nick Nolte – Warrior
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Max von Sydow – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Bérénice Bejo – The Artist
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer – The Help
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
The Descendants – Alexander Payne & Nat Faxon and Jim Rash
Hugo – John Logan
The Ides of March - George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
Moneyball – Steven Zaillian & Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids – Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
Margin Call – J.C. Chandor
Midnight in Paris – Woody Allen
A Separation – Asghar Farhadi
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Bullhead, Belgium
Footnote, Israel
In Darkness, Poland
Monsieur Lazhar, Canada
A Separation, Iran
DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated
DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
God Is the Bigger Elvis
Incident in New Baghdad
Saving Face
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Dimanche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic
ART DIRECTION
The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
War Horse
CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree of Life
War Horse
COSTUME DESIGN
Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.
FILM EDITING
The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
MAKEUP
Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The Iron Lady
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
The Adventures of Tintin
The Artist
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
“Man or Muppet” from The Muppets
“Real in Rio” from Rio
SOUND EDITING
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse
SOUND MIXING
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse
VISUAL EFFECTS
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Link Love: LA Times – The Envelope






