84th Annual Academy Award Nominations

The 84th annual Academy Award nominations were announced this morning.

HUGO led with a total of 11 nominations, closely followed by THE ARTIST with 10.

This year there are nine nominees for Best Picture. As was the case last year, I've seen three of the nominees: THE DESCENDANTS, MONEYBALL, and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS.

I'm mildly surprised MONEYBALL was nominated for Best Picture; it was pleasant but had some glaring weaknesses. I didn't feel it had anything extra-special meriting recognition as a potential Best Picture.

I was glad to see George Clooney nominated for Best Actor for THE DESCENDANTS; I'll be quite surprised if he doesn't win. Clooney was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for cowriting THE IDES OF MARCH, a film I really enjoyed.

The biggest surprise to me was that MIDNIGHT IN PARIS didn't receive a nomination for Best Cinematography.

There were only two nominees for Best Song. That being the case, I'm baffled that "Man or Muppet" from THE MUPPETS was nominated for Best Song, but not "Life's a Happy Song."

It's also a mystery to me how KUNG FU PANDA 2 got a nomination for Animated Picture, but the very creative, visually delightful ARTHUR CHRISTMAS was ignored.

As an aside, my oldest daughter has seen seven of the nine Best Picture nominees and is strongly in favor of THE ARTIST. She loved parts of HUGO but felt it was two stories competing for time in the same movie. She's baffled by the nomination for EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE, especially when TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY was ignored in that category.

The awards ceremony will take place February 26th.

Previously: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011. 2009 was such a bad year I didn't bother to comment!