Wednesday, January 25, 2012
By Susan King
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid homage Tuesday morning to the early days of cinema by bestowing the lion’s share of Oscar nominations on two films that are valentines to the early days of cinema.
“Hugo,” Martin Scorsese’s heartfelt love letter to filmmaking, earned the most nominations with 11, including best picture, best director and best screenplay as well as several technical Oscars.“The Artist,” the low-budget black-and-white silent movie that offers a glimpse of Hollywood during its transition to the “talkies” earned 10 nominations, including nods for best picture, best director, screenplay, actor and supporting actress.
George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt and Octavia Spencer were among the performers receiving nominations, while “The Descendants” and “Moneyball” also scored best picture nods as the field for the 84th Academy Awards was announced in Beverly Hills.
With the nominations, “The Artist” was catapulted to front-runner status even though the black-and-white silent film about Hollywood’s transition to “talkies” has not been widely seen. (It has only made just over $12.1 million at box office.) But it’s stealing the lion’s share of critics awards as well as a Golden Globe for best picture. It earned an extra boost Saturday when it won the Producers Guild Award. The award is one of the more reliable predictors of Oscar gold: Over the last four years, the PGA and the academy have agreed on best picture.
Rounding out the nine best picture nominees are “War Horse,” “The Tree of Life,” “Midnight in Paris,” “The Help,” “Hugo,” and “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.” Disappointing comedy fans was the no-show “Bridesmaids,” which some had suggested could win a best picture nod. However, the raunchy girl comedy wasn’t completely shut out. Melissa McCarthy picked up a best supporting actress nomination, and the film received a best original screenplay nomination for “Saturday Night Live” star Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo.
It was a particularly good morning for buddies Clooney and Pitt. In addition to Clooney’s best actor nod for playing a middle-aged father of two in “The Descendants,” he also earned an adapted screenplay nomination for the political thriller, “The Ides of March.” Pitt earned a nomination for lead actor as Oakland A’s general manager Billy Bean in “Moneyball,” he also picked up a nomination as producer of that best picture nominee.
Besides Clooney and Pitt, the best actor contenders are Demian Bichir in “A Better Life,” Jean Dujardin in “The Artist” and Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” Vying with Streep, who earns her 17th Oscar nomination as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” are Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs,” Viola Davis in “The Help,” Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in “My Week with Marilyn.” Missing from the best actress list was Tilda Swinton for “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” which had earned her several nominations and wins, including the Golden Globe.
While Hollywood is always accused of being obsessed with youth, that certainly isn’t the case in the supporting actor category. All but one of the nominees is under 50, and two of them — Christopher Plummer, for “Beginners,” and Max von Sydow for “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” — are 82.
Joining them is Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn,” Nick Nolte in “Warrior” and the baby of the bunch, Jonah Hill in “Moneyball.”
Alongside McCarthy and Spencer in the supporting actress category are Berenice Bejo in “The Artist,” Jessica Chastain in “The Help” and Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs.”
One of the most intriguing races to watch on Oscar night will be between the veteran Scorsese, who won the Oscar for best director five years ago for “The Departed,” and the Hollywood newcomer, French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius of “The Artist.” Taking on these front-runners in the best director category are Alexander Payne for “The Descendants,” Terrence Malick for “The Tree of Life” and Woody Allen for “Midnight in Paris.”
The acclaimed Iranian family drama “A Separation” earned a best foreign language film nomination as expected. But the film, which has won numerous honors this awards season, also earned a best original screenplay nomination for its director, Asghar Farhadi, making it the first Iranian film in academy history to receive such a nod.
Perhaps the only sure thing is that the Oscar ceremony is expected to be a lot more entertaining than last year when James Franco and Anne Hathaway misfired as co-hosts. That’s because Billy Crystal and his quick wit are back.
The ceremony is scheduled for Feb. 26 at the Kodak Theatre. It will be aired on ABC.
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