After months of build-up the 84th Academy Awards took place today with Billy Crystal as host. Martin Scorsese’s Hugo got off to a good start by winning technical awards such as Cinematography, Visual Effects, and Sound Mixing, but The Artist picked up the major categories including Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius, Best Actor for Jean Dujardin, and Best Film. Meryl Streep also picked up her third Oscar for portraying former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Winners in bold:

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

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

Best Directing
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Best Animated Short Film
Dimanche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Best Documentary Short Subject
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 Live-Action Short Film
Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic

Best Original Screenplay
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Margin Call
Midnight in Paris
A Separation

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Descendants
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Original Song
“Man or Muppet,” The Muppets
“Real in Rio,” Rio

Best Original Score
The Adventures of Tintin
The Artist
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

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 Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Best Animated Feature
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

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 Sound Mixing
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

Best Sound Editing
Drive
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

Best Film Editing
The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball

Best Supporting Actress
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help

Best Foreign Language Film
Bullhead (Belgium)
Footnote (Israel)
In Darkness (Poland)
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
A Separation (Iran)

Best Makeup
Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
The Iron Lady

Best Costume Design
Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

Best Art Direction
The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
War Horse

Best Cinematography
The Artist
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree of Life
War Horse

A full round-up and analysis of the awards will be forthcoming. What did you think of The Academy’s choices?

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The 84th annual Academy Awards ceremony takes place this Sunday in Los Angeles so I figured this is the right time to look at past Best Picture winners and just how much of an impact they had at the box office. It’s basically to see if the Academy’s preferences mirrored those of the movie going public.

Following will be a top 10 of the highest grossing Best Picture winners of all time and since we’re talking about some really old movies here, we’ll go adjusted for inflation. Also since there is no accurate worldwide adjusted data I have to chose North America only.

10. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) $469.8 million ($36M unadjusted) – Bet you didn’t see this coming in 10th place and with so much money no less. Winner of 2 Oscars in 1953, including Best Writing besides Best Picture. One of the last movies by Cecil B. DeMille, who was extremely popular at the time, The Greatest Show on Earth is definitely a movie to have in your collection.

9. My Fair Lady (1964) $469.8 million ($72M) – Starring the late Audrey Hepburn, this one took home 8 Oscars and deservingly so. Between this and the wonderful Merry Poppins, I think the overall best film won.

8. Around the World in 80 Days (1956) $505.9 million ($42M) – Since I grew up reading Jules Verne novels and watching this movie, I guess you could say I am a little biased when it comes to praising it. But you know what, Around the World in 80 Days is great and you should see it. Watch out, don’t grab by accident the 2004 version, you don’t want that. Also the film won 5 Oscars in 1957, impressive for a movie clearly not aimed at the Academy.

7. Forrest Gump (1994) $615 million ($329.7M) – Another one of my favorite films on this list, winner of 6 Oscars in 1995 and it seems also a favorite of many others since it’s sporting an 8.7 rating on IMDB from 448,908 voters. While Forrest might not be the brightest tool in the shed, he is definitely among the most popular ones.

6. The Godfather (1972) $617.9 million ($134.9M) – Marlon Brando promised an offer we can’t refuse and even 40 years later I’d say he damn well delivered. The Godfather is one of the great classics of cinema, a film you are not allowed to skip if being a movie buff is your thing.

5. The Sting (1973) $697.9 million ($156M) – Paul Newman and Robert Redford as two con man as well as 7 Oscars in 1974, The Sting is the kind of movie that just works, no pretentious crap here, just a real good time. Great film, definitely watch it plus you can find it easy now in remastered form on various online streaming services.

4. Ben-Hur (1959) $767.3 million ($74M) – One of the great epics of all time, Ben-Hur was the kind of event film you just had to see in theaters. This held the record for most Oscars (11) up until it was tied in 1998 by Titanic.

3. Titanic (1997) $1,004.9 million ($600.7M) – James Cameron, 11 Oscars, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”, and obviously a timeless love story set during one of the biggest naval disasters in history, the sinking of the Titanic. It’s getting a 3D re-release on April 4th so if you’re one of the 2-3 people that still hasn’t seen this, it’s worth the price of a ticket or better, two tickets, one for you and one for your loved one.

2. The Sound of Music (1965) $1,115.1 million ($158.6M) – Winner of 5 Oscars, The Sound of Music is another film I grew up watching so I do have fond memories of it. Now bear in mind I don’t exactly enjoy musicals but this was the rare exception for me. The Sound of Music is a classic that’s best enjoyed with the entire family, young or old, this is a film for all ages.

1. Gone with the Wind (1939) $1,582 million ($198.6M) – Winner of 8 Oscars, this is without a doubt one of the most celebrated movies of all time. Based on the best selling novel with the same name written by Margaret Mitchell (that I so happen to own a copy), Gone with the Wind was re-released in theaters 6 times over the course of 51 years, something absolutely incredible and a testament to the quality and ageless nature of this motion picture.

So now that we have that out of the way, tomorrow we’ll look at the current Best Picture nominees and see how they stack and just how out of touch with the public the Academy has gotten over the years. That or people really lost their taste in movies. I mean isn’t it strange that there’s not a single film from the past decade on that list? Think about that until next time.

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When last year’s nominations were announced, there were very few surprises. The general consensus was that things went as expected. This year, however, the Academy spiced things up with a bunch of snubs and surprises.

SNUBS

Michael Fassbender (Shame), Leonardo DiCaprio (J Edgar), and Ryan Gosling (Drive and The Ides of March) are all missing from the Best Actor category. I did not expect all three to make the cut, but I did expect at least one of them to get a nod. It seems the Academy decided to snub the 30-somethings in favor of the old guys this year.

The Adventures of Tintin didn’t land a Best Animated Feature nomination. This just goes to show how different the Oscars are from the Golden Globes. Just nine days after Steven Spielberg’s animated film beat out its competitors at the Globes, it only manages to nab a Best Original Score nomination from the Academy.

Albert Brooks (Drive) is absent from the Best Supporting Actor race. I’m actually quite happy with the five nominees in this category, but Brooks is a well-respected actor who has a heavy force earlier on this awards season. That kind of formula often equates to an Oscar nod, but it looks like his momentum died out too early.

One of the strangest snubs is in the Original Song category. For some reason, the members of the Academy only felt two songs from the entire year were worth nominating. Don’t get me wrong, I’m enormously happy that Bret McKenzie is getting some love from his work on The Muppets, but historically, there have never been less than three nominated songs, and prior to 1946 there were often ten. Was 2011 such an awful year for music in the movies? I doubt it. The list of songs that could have been added to the mix is a long one, including any one of the five that were nominated at the Golden Globes, or even a handful of other songs from The Muppets.

Nothing at all for 50/50. Nobody could have been expecting much, but there are many who thought that a Best Original Screenplay nod was coming.

Tilda Swinton was left off the ballot for her performance in We Need to Talk About Kevin. It would have been much more shocking if Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) or Viola Davis (The Help) had been snubbed, but ripples of outrage at Swinton’s absence have emerged and are mostly directed at the inclusion of Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) in her place. Mara’s presence shouldn’t be such a surprise, however, considering her performance in Fincher’s blockbuster has been universally praised, and she’s been nominated for several other awards, including the Golden Globe.

SURPRISES

Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Demián Bichir (A Better Life) fill in the Best Actor slots. A lot of people will be praising the cinematic gods for the fact that Oldman, who has long been considered one of the most underrated actors around, has finally snagged his first Oscar nomination. He garnered some significant buzz early on, but much of that faded until last week’s BAFTA nominations were announced. It’s not a huge surprise, but it is a pleasant one. Bichir’s presence in the category has some folks scratching their heads, not because of his performance, but because they have no idea who he is. Bichir is well-known actor in Mexico, but has only recently received much exposure elsewhere, largely due to his role on TV’s Weeds. He has shown up from time to time in other awards this year (he’s nominated for a SAG award and Independent Spirit Award), so his nomination isn’t entirely out of the blue. But it is a surprise, considering other actors, such as the aforementioned Fassbender and DiCaprio, had much more buzz surrounding them.

Bridesmaids gets some love. Not only did Melissa McCarthy nab a Best Supporting Actor nod, which isn’t a surprise so much as a relief, but Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo have found themselves matched up against the likes of Woody Allen and Michel Hazanavicius in the Best Original Screenplay competition.

Hugo gets eleven nominations–more than any other film this year. It looks like Scorsese’s family flick is steadily gaining momentum as the Oscars near. Each individual nomination isn’t surprising, but the grand total is somewhat staggering. The general expectation was that The Artist would lead the nominations. Michel Hazanavicius’ silent film is still the Best Picture front runner, but Hugo is making a strong play for the big prize through the sheer number of nominations, and due to the fact that Martin Scorsese has been a long-time Oscar darling, even if it took the Academy so long to finally give him a directing trophy.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close gets a Best Picture nod. All right, with ten potential Best Picture slots, it’s hard to say that anything is really a surprise, but this movie hasn’t had a particularly strong showing this awards season, and its critical reception has been hit-and-miss at best. It currently sits at 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t the ultimate authority on Oscar-worthy film making, but certainly indicates that the movie isn’t winning over its audiences.

Speaking of the Best Picture category, nine out of a possible ten films made the cut. What movie do you think should have filled in that gap? Who else do you think was snubbed? Sound off in the comments below.

The 84th Academy Awards ceremony airs on Sunday, February 26th. You can see the full list of nominations here.

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Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Academy member and Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence announced the nominations earlier today. Martin Scorsese’s Hugo lead the pack with 11 nominations, with Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist picking up 10.

Here’s list in full:

Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
George Clooney in “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”

Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis in “The Help”
Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”

Actress in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain in “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer in “The Help”

Animated Feature Film
“A Cat in Paris” Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
“Chico & Rita” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
“Kung Fu Panda 2″ Jennifer Yuh Nelson
“Puss in Boots” Chris Miller
“Rango” Gore Verbinski

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

Directing
“The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius
“The Descendants” Alexander Payne
“Hugo” Martin Scorsese
“Midnight in Paris” Woody Allen
“The Tree of Life” Terrence Malick

Documentary (Feature)
“Hell and Back Again” Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Pina” Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
“Undefeated” TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Documentary (Short Subject)
“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement” Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
“God Is the Bigger Elvis” Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
“Incident in New Baghdad”James Spione
“Saving Face” Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

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

Foreign Language Film
“Bullhead” Belgium
“Footnote” Israel
“In Darkness” Poland
“Monsieur Lazhar” Canada
“A Separation” Iran

Makeup
“Albert Nobbs” Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Iron Lady” Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (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

Music (Original Song)
“Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
“Real in Rio” from “Rio” Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Best Picture
“The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer
“The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer
“The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
“Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
“Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
“Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
“The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined
“War Horse” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

Short Film (Animated)
“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

Short Film (Live Action)
“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

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

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

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

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“The Descendants” Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
“Hugo” Screenplay by John Logan
“The Ides of March” Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
“Moneyball” Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. Story by Stan Chervin
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The Artist” Written by Michel Hazanavicius
“Bridesmaids” Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
“Margin Call” Written by J.C. Chandor
“Midnight in Paris” Written by Woody Allen
“A Separation” Written by Asghar Farhadi

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The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences will be announcing this year’s nominations in less than one hour. You can watch the live stream below:

A full list of the nominations and analysis will follow.

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The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences has teamed up with Funny or Die to produce a trailer for the 84th Academy Awards, which will air February 26th.

The trailer features former Transformers co-stars Josh Duhamel and Megan Fox on the hunt for Oscar host Billy Crystal, and they meet a few familiar faces along the way (namely William Fichtner, Vinnie Jones and Robin Williams).

Watch below:

The Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 24th.

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Last month The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced 15 films had been selected for consideration for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 84th Academy Awards. Today those 15 movies were narrowed down to 10.

Here are the movies still in the race:

“Captain America: The First Avenger”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
“Hugo”
“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”
“Real Steel”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“The Tree of Life”
“X-Men: First Class”

For those wondering, the 5 movies no longer in the race are Thor, Sucker Punch, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Cowboys & Aliens, and Super 8.

On January 19th the 5 official nominations will be selected after members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee view 10-minute excerpts from each film. The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012. Billy Crystal will host the actual ceremony on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

Which movies do you think should get a VFX nod?

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Brian Grazer stepped in to replace Brett Ratner as Oscar producer yesterday, and now Billy Crystal has announced he’ll be replacing Eddie Murphy as host.

Crystal told his followers on Twitter that he’ll be taking the gig, closing his tweet by saying he’s “Looking forward to the show”.

The actor/writer/comedian is no stranger to the Academy Awards, having hosted 8 times over the years (mostly in the 90s). His last was in 2004 when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won all 11 categories in which it was nominated. Hiring Crystal as host is a safe choice, as he’s got plenty of experience. Over recent years the producers have been trying ‘out of the box’ choices, such as Anne Hathaway and James Franco last year, but with just over 3 months until the event I suppose there’s not enough time to take another big risk.

The 84th annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 26, 2012

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Less than a day after Brett Ratner and Eddie Murphy pulled out of producing and hosting the 84th annual Academy Awards, Brian Grazer has stepped in to produce the ceremony.

Brian Grazer’s A Beautiful Mind won Best Picture in 2001, and he has produced The Da Vinci Code, Frost/Nixon and Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar. Funnily, he also produced Ratner’s Tower Heist.

The search will now be on to find a host.

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Following Brett Ratner’s resignation as a producer of the 84th annual Academy Awards, Eddie Murphy has withdrawn as host.

Murphy was confirmed as host in September and was said to be Ratner’s only choice. But with Ratner gone, Murphy obviously feels no reason to stick around.

Here’s the press release:

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announced that Eddie Murphy has withdrawn as host of the 84th Academy Awards. “I appreciate how Eddie feels about losing his creative partner, Brett Ratner, and we all wish him well,” said Sherak.

Commented Murphy, “First and foremost I want to say that I completely understand and support each party’s decision with regard to a change of producers for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I’m sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job.”

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar® presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

The Academy now has just over three months until the main event, so finding a new producer and host will likely happen sooner rather than later. I imagine Murphy’s approach would have been heavy on comedy, so The Academy may opt for another comedian. Any suggestions for the new host?

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