The Academy Awards’ Oscar nominations are in and the Parisian aventure Hugo takes the lead with 11 nominations, including
Best Picture.
Also nominated in the Best Picture category: The Help, Midnight in Paris, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Artist, The Descendants, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, and War Horse.
Within the past two years, 10 nominees have ran for Best Picture, but with the new rule enforcing that films need to receive a certain amount of first place votes, the Best Picture category has only nine contendors this year.
The Artist, the silent film, came a close second with 10 nominations, including Best Actor for Jean Dujardin, and Supporting Actress for Berenice Bejo. The French filmmaker, Michel Hazanvicius, is also nominated
for writing and directing.
Dujardin, winner for Best Actor in a musical or comedy for the Golden Globes, will be going against George Clooney for The Descendants, Brad Pitt
as the General Manager for the Oakland A’s in Moneyball, Gary Oldman as British spymaster in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Demian Bichir as an immigrant father in A Better Life.
Golden Globe winners Meryl Streep, as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady and Michelle Williams, as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with
Marilyn were both announced contenders for Best Actress. Also nominated were Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs, Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Viola Davis in The Help.
As for Supporting Actresses, the nominees include Jessica Chastain in The Help, Berenice Bejo in The Artist, Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs and most
surprisingly Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids.
Rarely do the Oscars acknowledge performances in a comedy, but the Kristen Wiig comedy could not
be ignored.
In the selection for Best Supporting Actor, Christopher Plummer won two years ago as Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station but if he wins again, Plummer would become the oldest acting recipient ever.
Along with Plummer, the other choices are Jonah Hill in Moneyball, Nick Nolte in Warrior, Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn and Max von Sydow
in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
The Oscars will be live on ABC Sunday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. Tune in to find out who takes the golden
statue home.
