Oscar Noms 2012 - Surprises, Snubs, and Head Scratchers

Well, well, well, Oscar. You always seem to find a way to amaze us, don't you? Both in good and bad ways. Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and if you haven't heard, like always, there are quite a few surprises on the list. Here are 12 things we learned from the Academy this morning:

12) They must really hate songs.
The sound and music division of the Academy must have better things to do with their time. A few years ago, the Oscar telecast decided to do away with the performance of the original songs during the broadcast; after that, steps were taken to give the opportunity to lower the amount of nominees in the original song category. This morning, only two songs got nominated. The second best song from The Muppets, and some Latin number from Rio. Could we see this category gone forever by next year in favor of something like Best Ensemble? In any case, you've got a 50/50 shot on those Oscar pools for this category (Hint: go with The Muppets).

11) Speaking of 50/50...
The overlook of Will Reiser's terrific script of the somewhat biographical story of his fight against cancer was a terrible misstep by the Academy.  He made a comedy about cancer, and made it work, on a number of levels. That alone should have made it a contender, not to mention how deeply it affected the (few) people who saw it.

10) They REALLY want Woody Allen there. 
The Academy loves Woody Allen, even though he never shows to the awards ceremony. They gave him a lot of reasons to show this year this morning, however, with the likely scenario that he'll recieve his 4th Oscar for his Midnight in Paris screenplay.

9) Best Director is a battle of the AARP cards (sort of).
The average age for the category this year is 61 years old. Michel Hazanavicius, the youngest of the group at 43, is the front-runner at this point for The Artist.

8) Honor the old; in with the new.
Movies like The Artist, Hugo, and Midnight in Paris all center on the same idea of living in the moment, yet honoring times gone by. The Academy also honored its favorites like Clooney, Allen, Scorsese, Streep, Close, and Spielberg, while giving honors to newcomers as well, such as Rooney Mara, Jean Dujardin, Melissa McCarthy, and Jessica Chastain. I'm also ecstatic to finally say Gary Oldman is an Oscar nominee. It was long overdue.

7) Ryan Gosling and Michael Fassbender need to be in even more movies to get nominated.
Apparently, eight great roles between the two of them isn't enough for either to be nominated in either acting category. Both are going to be around for a long time, and may even go against one another a few years for Oscars, but people will look back on their performances this year and be shocked by the lack of support from the Academy.

6) A Separation is a lock for Best Foreign Language Film.
Not that the film was the favorite already for the award before this morning, it's nomination in the Original Screenplay category all but sealed the deal. The film has been widely praised as the best of the year, and I almost thought, just for a second, it had a shot at a Best Picture nomination.

5) Pixar needs to get its act together.
This is the first time a Pixar film has not been nominated for Best Animated Feature. When Toy Story was released, the Academy didn't have an animated feature category. The snub this morning proves that Pixar needs to stop recycling old material (that wasn't very good to begin with), and bring back it's terrific filmmaking prowess. Brave should (hopefully) change that in 2012.

4) Box office doesn't matter much.
Like The Hurt Locker's Best Picture win two years ago, the Academy is out to prove it's not kind on simply awarding the most profitable film of the year. That's certainly the case again, with The Help being the only Best Picture nominee (so far) to gross over $100 million at the box office.

3) Clint Eastwood is losing his touch.
I don't think Eastwood has made a really good film since Letters from Iwo Jima, but man has he tried to convince the Academy otherwise. This year, they wised up to his old tricks, completely shutting out his paltry attempt with J. Edgar. The film is a mess, and the Academy didn't even bother honoring Leonardo DiCaprio for his take on the figure.

2) The Academy wants to feel good at the movies.
With snubs all around for movies like Melancholia, Shame, Drive, Take Shelter, and We Need to Talk About Kevin, and the inclusion of movies like Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, it's clear the Academy wants their hearts stirred, not shaken. That is going to be an important idea to remember when filling out those Oscar ballots, and watching the broadcast, because...

1) It's The Artist's award to lose.
With 10 nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, and Editing, it seems like nothing will be able to stop the silent film come February 26. The Help, the film I thought had the best shot at upsetting The Artist, didn't get any of the all important Director, Editing, or Screenplay nominations. That all but took it out of the race. The film most likely now? Martin Scorsese's Hugo, which leads the field with 11 nominations.

Stay tuned here for more analysis, my best films of the year, and other musings leading up to the big night next month.