84th Academy Award Sweepstakes

[Jon]

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

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

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Descendants - Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon &
Jim Rash
Hugo - John Logan
The Ides of March - George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
Moneyball - Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin
Story by 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

ART DIRECTION
The Artist - Production Design: Laurence Bennett, Set Decoration: Robert Gould
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Production Design: Stuart Craig, Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
Hugo - Production Design: Dante Ferretti, Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
Midnight in Paris - Production Design: Anne Seibel, Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil
War Horse - Production Design: Rick Carter, Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Artist - Guillaume 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 Christl
The Artist - Mark Bridges
Hugo - Sandy Powell
Jane Eyre - Michael O’Connor
W.E. - Arianne Phillips

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

BEST FILM EDITING
The Artist - Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants - Kevin Tent
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
Hugo - Thelma Schoonmaker
Moneyball - Christopher Tellefsen

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Bullhead - Belgium
Footnote - Israel
In Darkness - Poland
Monsieur Lazhar - Canada
A Separation - Iran

BEST 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
The Adventures of Tintin - John Williams
The Artist - Ludovic Bource
Hugo - Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Alberto Iglesias
War Horse - John Williams

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Man or Muppet - The Muppets, Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
Real in Rio – Rio, Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown
Lyric by Siedah Garrett

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Dimanche/Sunday - Patrick Doyon
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
La Luna - Enrico Casarosa
A Morning Stroll - Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
Wild Life - Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

BEST LIVE FILM
Pentecost - Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane
Raju - Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
The Shore - Terry George and Oorlagh George
Time Freak - Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
Tuba Atlantic - Hallvar Witzø

BEST SOUND EDITING
Drive - Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Ren Klyce
Hugo - Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
War Horse - Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

BEST SOUND MIXING
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
Hugo - Tom Fleischman and 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

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Part 2 - Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and
John Richardson
Hugo - Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and
Alex Henning
Real Steel - Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

[Jon]

I've not seen much of this years contenders, but I'll take a punt on a couple of categories...

Best Picture: The Artist. Loved it. Thin as tracing paper, but plays out beautifully and uses sound very cleverly. Heartfelt. Not against seeing Hugo snatch this though. Where the hell is Drive, dammit? 

Best Director: I'd give it Scorcese for Hugo, but never count against Malick. Tree of Life divided critics, but... it's Malick!

Best Actor: Not seen enough to judge, I feel, but bloody hell, Gary Oldman was beyond awesome in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

No idea on the other acting categories. Ben Kingsley was snubbed, I feel, for not being nominated for Hugo. I wouldn't be sad to see Bérénice Bejo get Best Supporting Actress for The Artist.

I also don't know what to say about Adapted Screenplay. I don't think Hugo deserves it for reasons I mentioned in my review. And should Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy get it? Fantastic film, but there's no escaping the fact they are on the BBC's turf...

And maybe The Artist for Best Original Screenplay, but I expect it will get pipped by the others. Which I haven't seen. 

The other categories are a mish-mash for me. Again, I'm biased, but effects should go to Hugo and cinematography to The Artist  , however like I said for Director, don't bet against Malick.

[Tom]

As usual I haven't seen many movies which are nominated for an Academy Award by the time the ceremony is.
This time around I saw only one of the above movies: "Midnight in Paris". Nice movie but not Oscar material in my opinion.

[Dragonfire]

I've only seen The Help.  It is really good, and one of my favorites of the year.  Though that usually doesn't mean squat when it comes to what wins at the Oscars.   

Octavia Spencer was wonderful in The Help. 

[goodguy]

This year's nominations are such a sad state of affairs, I can't even muster up the energy to pick them apart and make some disparaging comments. The BP nominees contain two of the worst films I've seen in 2011 and another one I expect to fall in that category.

Where the hell is Drive, dammit?  

Or Beginners, Melancholia, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Jane Eyre, Meek's Cutoff, The Skin I Live In?
Seriously, even if I filter my own list by those that were eligible for nomination (see here), I still come up with some 30 or 40 films more deserving than most of the actual nominees.

[Jon]

As I said before, I do love The Artist, which is at odds with how deserving of all these awards it actually is, so watching the BAFTAs tonight was an acid test. You know, I don't deny it some of them, even Best Picture, but Actor? Director? Noooo. And to take Actor from Gary Oldman or Michael Fassbender (not seen Shame, but from all accounts, he is astonishing in it). Good grief. Bit OTT.

Still, got to give BAFTA credit for showing the Oscars the error of their ways and awarding Senna not only Best Documentary, but editing too.



Matthias, did you reply to this thread tonight? I got a notification, but there's no evidence of you being here. I'm confused! 

[goodguy]

Matthias, did you reply to this thread tonight? I got a notification, but there's no evidence of you being here. I'm confused! 

Yeah, I made a comment about the BAFTAs, but then decided it's just not worth it. Sorry for waking you up. 

[Dragonfire]

I saw most of the BAFTAs on BBC America. 
I am starting to get the feeling that the awards are going a bit overboard for The Artist.  I haven't seen it..not sure if I will..but well..I get this feeling ever so often with some movies.

[Achim]

I saw Jon's complain on Facebook that The Artist cleaned the BAFTAs just a little too much... I agree, Marie, I doubt the film can hold up to all that acclaim at this point I am not sure I should see it, at least not until expectations have cooled down a little bit.

[Dragonfire]

There have been some in the past that got all kinds of awards - Golden Globes, Screen Actors, BAFTAS, Oscars etc - that I was only sort of interested in seeing to begin with.  Then after hearing so many rave about the movie - whatever it was - I saw it and wasn't that impressed.  A few I really didn't like at all, and others I only kind of sort of liked, but certainly didn't think they were anywhere near good enough to be the best of the year.  There have been some that have won a lot that I've liked a lot too...but those have been movies I was already really wanting to see.  Not one of the ones I wasn't that sure of and then thought, well it must be good because it's winning everything.

The one movie that really stands out that way for me is As Good As it Gets.  Not that it won everything that year...but it got boatloads of hype, especially for the acting.  I thought the movie was only ok when I did see it and I haven't wanted to see it again.  Helen Hunt got way over hyped because of that role and the performance didn't impress me.  She's seemed a bit....smug to me ever since too.