2012 Academy Award nominations

Best Picture:
The Artist
The Descendents
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Best Actor:
Demian Bichir for A Better Life
George Clooney for The Descendents
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt for Moneyball

Best Supporting Actor:
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill for Moneyball
Nick Nolte for Warrior
Christopher Plummer for Beginners
Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Actress:
Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis for The Help

Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn

Best Supporting Actress:
Berenice Bejo for The Artist
Jessica Chastain for The Help

Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids

Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer for The Help

Best Animated Film:
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots

Rango

Art Direction:
The Artist - Laurence Bennett & Robert Gould
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - Stuart Craig & Stephenie McMillan

Hugo - Dante Ferretti & Francesca Lo Shiavo

Midnight in Paris - Anne Aeibel & Helene Dubreuil
War Horse - Rick Carter & Lee Sandales

Cinematography:
The Artist - Guillame Schiffman

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Jeff Cronenweth

Hugo - Robert Richardson
The Tree of Life - Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse - Janusz Kaminski

Costume Design:
Anonymous - Lisy Christi
The Artist - Mark Bridges

Hugo - Sandy Powell

Jane Eyre - Michael O'Connor
W.E. - Arianne Phillips

Best Director:
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Alexander Payne for The Descendents

Martin Scorsese for Hugo

Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life

Best Documentary Feature:
Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated

Best Documentary Short:
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

Film Editing:
The Artist - Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendents - Kevin Tent

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall

Hugo - Thelma Schoonmaker

Moneyball - Christopher Tellefsen

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

Makeup:
Albert Nobbs - Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston, and Matthew W. Mungle
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 - Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, and Lisa Tomblin
The Iron Lady - Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Best Original Score:
John Williams for The Adventures of Tintin
Ludovic Bource for The Artist

Howard Shore for Hugo

Alberto Iglesias for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
John Williams for War Horse

Best Original Song:
"Man or Muppet" from The Muppets - Bret McKenzie
"Real in Rio" from RIO - Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, and Siedah Garrett

Best Animated Short Film:
Dimanche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Best Live Action Short Film:
Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic

Sound Editing:
Drive - Lon Bender & Victor Ray Ennis

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Ren Klyce

Hugo - Philip Stockton & Eugene Gearty

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Ethan Van der Ryn & Erik Aadahl
War Horse - Richard Hymns & Gary Rydstrom

Sound Mixing:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, and Bo Persson

Hugo - Tom Fleischman & John Midgley

Moneyball - Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco, and Ed Novick

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers,  Jeffrey J. Haboush, and Peter J. Devlin
War Horse - Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, and Stuart Wilson

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

Best Adapted Screenplay:
The Descendents - 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

Best 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

My picks are in red if I have a pick. If there are multiples that means I would take either one.

But let me get this straight... The Academy completely stiffed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? The nomination for Best Actress is deserved and should be there, but nothing for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, or Adapted Screenplay? Nothing?! That is bullshit. How in the fuck did Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross not get a nomination this year? The score for that film was 1000x better, and longer, than the score for The Social Network and they swept the awards for that one last year. Leaving that film out of the major categories while films like The Tree of Life were included was a big "fuck you" to intelligent moviegoers. I am pissed. Rooney Mara should win but she won't. It will be any of the other 4 in the category despite Mara giving the best performance and putting herself through such a physical and mental transformation. Who else did that and won an Oscar for it last year? Ugh...

Comparing these nominations to others I am surprised they didn't give a nomination to Ryan Gosling for either Drive or The Ides of March and that Leonardo DiCaprio got shafted for J. Edgar. I am also surprised, and a little disappointed, that Bridesmaids wasn't nominated for Best Picture. Crazy, Stupid, Love was also left out of the mix.