Hugo leads Oscar nominations, followed closely by The Artist

Hugo led the pack as the nominations were announced this morning in Los Angeles for the 84th Academy Awards.

Hugo scored 11 nominations, followed by The Artist with 10. After that, Moneyball and War Horse had six nominations each; the Descendants and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo each had five. The Help had four nominations.

Under the new voting rules, there were nine films nominated for Best Picture (marking a first for nine films competing in that top category, which can now range from five to ten nominees).

Surprising nominations included French feature A Cat in Paris for animated film; JC Chandor for original screenplay for Margin Call; and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close for best picture.

Notable snubs were The Adventures of Tintin being left off the nominations for Best Animated Film; and David Fincher and Steven Spielberg both locked out of the Best Director race. Also, Shame was not nominated in any category. Original screenplays overlooked were Will Reiser’s 50/50, Tom McCarthy & Joe Tibani’s Win Win and Diablo Cody’s Young Adult. Among documentaries, Buck and Project Nim had been expected to score nominations.

Among the acting categories, snubs included Tilda Swinton (best actress for We Need To Talk About Kevin); Charlize Theron (best actress for Young Adult); Leonardo DiCaprio (best actor for J. Edgar); Shailene Woodley (supporting actress for The Descendants); and Albert Brooks (supporting actor for Drive).

With his two nominations this year, composer John Williams now has had a career 47 Oscar nominations, second only to Walt Disney. Woody Allen, also nominated twice this year, has a total of 23.

Meryl Streep continues to be the most-nominated performer in Oscar history, with her Iron Lady nom pushing her up to 17 total.

George Clooney has for the second time received nominations in different categories for two different films in the same year (The Ides of March and The Descendants).

Pina becomes the first 3D film to be nominated in the documentary category.

In the Original Screenplay category, all are first-time nominees except for Woody Allen (with his 14th nomination in that category). And all nominees for Best Animated Feature are first-time nominees.

Asghar Farhadi A Separation from Iran was nominated both for Foreign Language Film (only Iran’s second nomination) and for best original screenplay (the first film in Farsi to make that list).

AMPAS President Tom Sherak announced the nominees with Academy member and 2011 Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone, The Hunger Games). The Oscars will be handed out February 26.

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

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

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

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

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Original Screenplay
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Kristen Wiig & Annie Mumulo, Bridesmaids
JC Chandor, Margin Call
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation

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

Best Animated Feature
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

Best Foreign Language Film
Bullhead (Belgium), dir. Michael R Roskam
Footnote (Israel), dir. Joseph Cedar
In Darkness (Poland), dir. Agnieszka Holland
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada), dir. Philippe Falardeau
A Separation (Iran), dir. Asghar Farhadi

Best 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, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
Pina, Wim Wenders
Undefeated, TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Best Cinematography
The Artist, Guillume Schiffman
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo, Robert Richardson
The Tree of Life, Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse, Janusz Kaminski

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 Art Direction
The Artist (prod design Laurence Bennett, set decoration Robert Gould)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (prod design Stuart Craig, set decoration Stephenie McMillan)
Hugo (prod design Dante Ferretti, set decoration Francesca Lo Schiavo)
Midnight In Paris (prod design Anne Seibel, set decoration Helene Dubreuil)
War Horse (prod design Rick Carter, set decoration Lee Sandales)

Best Costume Design
Anonymous, Lisy Christl
The Artist, Mark Bridges
Hugo, Sandy Powell
Jane Eyre, Michael O’Connor
W.E., Arianne Phillips

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 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
Transfomers: Dark of the Moon, Greg P Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey T Haboush and Peter J Devlin
War Horse, Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Best Sound Editing
Drive, Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Ren Klyce
Hugo, Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
Transfomers: Dark of the Moon, Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
War Horse, Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

Best Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, Tom 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

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

Documentary Short
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

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

Live Action Short
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