Oscar Nominations

Oscar nominations were this morning. Here's the full list. Only 18 films got more than one nomination and only 8 got more than 3. Here are the nominees by counts for the main categories which is not including any of the (15) shorts, the (5) animated features, (5) documentary features or (4) of the foreign language films (one of the 5 nominated ones, A Separation also got a writing nom so is included). The 15 marked with an * I still have to see.

11 Hugo
10 The Artist
6 War Horse*
6 Moneyball
5 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
5 The Descendants
4 The Help
4 Midnight in Paris
3 Transformers: Dark of the Moon*
3 The Tree of Life
3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
3 Albert Nobbs*
3 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2 The Iron Lady*
2 My Week With Marilyn
2 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close*
2 Bridesmaids*
2 A Separation*
1 A Better Life*
1 Anonymous*
1 Beginners
1 Drive
1 Jane Eyre*
1 Margin Call
1 Real Steel*
1 Rio*
1 Rise of the Planet of the Apes
1 The Adventures of Tintin
1 The Ides of March
1 The Muppets*
1 W.E*
1 Warrior*

The other nominees, of which I've only seen 2 and haven't even heard of most of them, are:

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Separation*
Bullhead*
Footnote*
In Darkness*
Monsieur Lazhar*

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

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*

What really surprises me in this list is how many films I haven't even heard of. Everything with multiple nominations I've heard of, although I've only seen 11 of those and missed 7. Of the other main award nominees I've never heard of A Better Life (up for best actor), Anonymous (costumes), W.E (costumes, and Madonna made a movie?!?), and I'm not sure I knew that there was a Jane Eyre adaptation this year (a limited release in March). Of the Animated Features I've never heard of A Cat in Paris or Chico & Rita which are French and Spanish films respectively. And while I've seen a lot of documentaries this year I've never heard of Pina or Undefeated. I've vaguely heard of Hell and Back Again, probably because it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year, but I don't think it got any real distribution. I guess an award at a major festival isn't enough for that.

As to what I think should have been nominated...

I've already seen complaints that Michael Fassbender should have been nominated for Shame and completely agree and I also think Michael Shannon was equally deserving for Take Shelter. I think they should have replaced Clooney and Oldman's positions (and I haven't seen Bichir in A Better Life).

I agree with the Best Actress nominees, though I haven't seen Streep's or Close's films, but how is Bérénice Bejo nominated as Supporting Actress in "The Artist"? She deserves to be nominated as Best Actress. Maybe they needed six in that category as they felt they only needed 9 in Best Picture.

I haven't seen most of the Documentary Features, but the one I did see, If a Tree Falls, was far inferior to Being Elmo and El Bulli.

But I think the biggest snubs are for The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, even though it got five noms (actress, cinematography, editing, sound editing and mixing) it really deserved three more. I think it's crime that Girl With a Dragon Tattoo didn't get best picture, particularly as there are only 9 nominees and I've not heard good thinks about Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close or War Horse. Also David Fincher should have been nominated for directing Girl With a Dragon Tattoo over Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris. There's just no comparison. And it should have been nominated for Best Score as it's just completely disturbing. At times it's in your face, but deservedly so.

Update: The only categories I've seen all the nominated films are: Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing. If I see War Horse I get to add three categories to that list.

There were only two nominees for Best Original Song. I guess Hollywood doesn't care about music anymore. Maybe a new hit song isn't enough to get people to go to the theater anymore.

Cars 2 is the first Pixar film to not be nominated for Best Animated Feature since the awards's inception in 2001.