Oscar Nominations 2012 - Thoughts

The Oscar nominations are in and, in many ways, represent the nostalgic haze currently sweeping Hollywood. French sleeper hit The Artist, a dialogue-free, black-and-white film about the death of silent cinema and rise of talkies, gets ten nominations but is just pipped by Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, a 3D celebration of the pioneering cinematic work of Georges Melies, which scooped eleven nominations in total.

As ever when the Oscar nominations are announced, there are notable omissions and inexplicable decisions. The winner in the Best Demonstration That The Academy Is Stark-Bollock Raving Mad category went to the revelation that sentimental drivel-fest Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close received a Best Picture nomination while Drive, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Shame, Young Adult, 50/50 and Melancholia got nothing. In addition, Steven Spielberg may well feel aggrieved that his work on War Horse hasn’t warranted a nomination for Best Director, while the Best Actor nomination for A Better Life’s Demián Bichir also comes as a surprise, especially considering the likes of Michael Fassbender, Michael Shannon and Ryan Gosling were snubbed for Shame, Take Shelter and Drive/The Ides of March respectively. 

The irritating trend this awards season has been the continued love-in for Woody Allen’s time-travelling, evocative blah-blah-blah Midnight in Paris. It’s inexplicable – not only is it yet another Allen film that fails to recapture the magic of his output in the 1970s, but there are also, as mentioned above, a number of arguably worthier candidates battling for nominations this year. Nevertheless, Midnight... gets four nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Stupid Academy morons.

The full nominations for the six main awards are as follows:

BEST PICTURE
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

BEST DIRECTOR
The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants - Alexander Payne
Hugo - Martin Scorsese
Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick

BEST ACTOR
Demián Bichir - A Better Life
George Clooney - The Descendants
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt - Moneyball

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Nick Nolte - Warrior
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Max von Sydow - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

BEST 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 SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Bérénice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help

My predictions:

Best Picture - It’s hard to see anything but The Artist tap-dancing off with the top prize. Aggressive marketing and promotion by the Weinsteins has led to widespread award success, and it will probably pay off here. However, the Academy does like to shake things up, so it would not be a particular shock to see of the nominees except Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close winning. I’m sticking with The Artist.

Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius deserves this for having the courage to make a film like The Artist in an increasingly unoriginal and creatively stagnant cinema. Although he may be challenged by Golden Globe-winning Martin Scorsese, it seems unlikely that the Academy would reward the director it has previously overlooked for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Aviator for a 3D children’s film. Payne, Allen and Malick haven’t won enough elsewhere to be considered serious contenders for the prize.

Best Actor - Although it would be perfect for Gary Oldman to win for his incredible reinterpretation of George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, it looks like a straight fight between Jean Dujardin for The Artist and George Clooney for The Descendants. Dujardin is good, but Clooney’s one of the Academy’s darlings, and he’ll probably win here.

Best Supporting Actor - In a fairly weak category this year, Christopher Plummer looks set to win the Oscar because of his age more than anything else (though his role in Beginners, as an octogenarian homosexual, is the kind of risqué fare the Academy likes). Having been overlooked for the last 50-odd years and losing the same award to Christoph Waltz in 2009, he should easily beat his rivals this year.

Best Actress - No contest. Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady. It’s terrifying to think how bad that film might have been had it not had an actress of Streep’s calibre carrying it. Michelle Williams and Viola Davies should count themselves unlucky they’re up against Streep – in any other year, they would have been runaway favourites for the Oscar.

Best Supporting Actress - In another odd set of nominations, the smart money’s on Octavia Spencer for her role in The Help. Jessica Chastain is nominated for the same film but should have been in for The Tree of Life, her best performance in the year she broke into the mainstream. Bérénice Bejo arguably could have been nominated for Best Actress, though it’s unlikely she would have won anything in that category either. It’s also nice to see Janet McTeer get some recognition for Albert Nobbs. 

Right. I’m off to put a bet on.