Real Steel now has more nominations (1) than Zodiac (0).

And Dragon Tattoo is good enough for an Actress, Editing, and Cinematography nom, but can't make a top 9 BP list. The new BP voting doesn't seem to work that well.

Scott Rudin might be the new Harvey Weinstein.

What. A. Fucking. Joke.

Don't even get me started with "Zodiac" getting zero nominations. My head will most likely implode. "Dragon Tattoo" absolutely deserved a Best Picture nomination and Fincher deserved a Best Director nomination too. Leaving them out is fucking ridiculous. Also, "Harry Potter" deserved a BP nomination over a few of those on the list. And I just noticed "50/50" didn't get a screenplay nomination either. Which I thought was a shoo-in.

For a second I thought the Best Documentary nominee "Undefeated" was the Sarah Palin tribute.

You're preaching to the choir on this one. This was my biggest disappointment of the nominations, but not super surprised.

I would pretty much count Moneyball out because Bennett Miller didn't get nominated for Directing. A BP winner without its director nominated has only happened 3 times in history, the last one being Driving Miss Daisy in 1989. Before that you have to go back to Grand Hotel in 1932.

As for Hugo, many of its nominations are technical, and the lack of any acting nominations puts the odds against it. Since the 1960s, if I'm not mistaken, only 4 films have won BP without an acting nod. However, it has happened 3 times in the last 16 years, as Slumdog Millionaire, Return of the King, and Braveheart managed to do it.

With Melissa McCarthy getting a nomination for Bridesmaids, does that mean that Zach Galifianakis should have been nominated for The Hangover?

I'd rank the BP nominees like this:

1. The Descendants
2. Moneyball
3. Midnight in Paris
4. The Tree of Life
5. Hugo
6. War Horse
7. The Help

2-4 was the hardest to rank and I could see that changing with a second viewing.

I haven't seen The Artist or Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

Overall, a pretty weak year for film.

The Artist will win BP, I thought this would be the case after I first saw it. The only movie that will give it a run for its money is The Descendants. Don't get me wrong, I loved Hugo but I don't see that as a BP winner at all.

I have no clue as to why Melissa McCarthy got nominated for Bridesmaids. She had some funny scenes and one down to earth scene but is no way worthy of a nomination.

Also, I too freaked out for a minute thinking the Academy nominated the Sarah Palin doc.

Plus her end credits scene...that is out there.

Agreed. I'd replace her nom with Carey Mulligan in "Shame".

Hugo
The Descendants
The Artist
The Help
War Horse
Moneyball
Extremely loud and incredibly close
Tree of Life
Midnight in PAris

Ugh, what a forgettable year. I haven't seen EL,IC yet but the I don't have much enthusiasm for the others. Hugo, Tree of Life and Midnight in Paris were "inspired" movies but I wasn't a huge fan of any of them. The Descendants is the first Alexander Payne movie I didn't like, War Horse is one of Spielberg's most tedious. Moneyball was utterly forgettable and The Artist just felt like a novelty to me, I didn't hate it but it wasn't great.

Except that it was the best movie released in 2011, so the general population can take a hike.

also surprised by lack of love for Fassbender in shame.

This year more than many I can seemingly recollect, it appears the Academy decided to snub the brash and new in favor of the old and tired. Perhaps that's fitting seeing as Billy Crystal is returning to host the Oscar telecast for the first time since '04.

Drive, Shame, Melancholia, Take Shelter, and Martha Marcy May Marlene are all overlooked in favor of reprehensible Oscar bait like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? Said Oscar bait also helps Stephen Daldry continue his perfect record of inexplicably landing a Best Picture nod for every film he’s directed (Billy Elliot, The Hours, The Reader).

Sure, every year we complain and gripe over who was overlooked. But this year’s list of snubs is ridiculously formidable:

Young Adult's Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt, Shailene Woodley, Melancholia’s Lars von Trier and Kirsten Dunst, Michael Shannon, Albert Brooks, Tilda Swinton, Shame’s Michael Fassbender and Steve McQueen, Martha Marcy May Marlene’s Elizabeth Olsen and John Hawkes.

I hope they all get together and throw an anti-Oscar party.

They will, and they'll call it the Independent Spirit Awards.

One of the two actresses in Melancholia should have been nominated. I suppose von Trier is totally blackballed now.

True.

Right. Most people are not equipped to go into a movie and not be spoonfed a narrative regardless of it's leading men. I see film primarily bound to the image and good filmmakers don't even need much dialogue to create a masterpiece.

"The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle." -Stanley Kubrick

I love all the drama in these threads. Like the Oscars have ever gotten it really right. Only thing I would have liked is Alan Rickman getting a nod for Snape.

Same with Jessica Chastain.

^seriously. I haven't seen Moneyball or The Help, but Pitt and Chastain were both phenomenal in The Tree of Life. Seems odd that they weren't nominated for that flick.

I want to be invited to that party.