gramilano

Mar­tin Scorsese’s Paris adven­ture “Hugo” leads the Academy Awards with 11 nom­in­a­tions, among them best pic­ture and the latest dir­ector hon­our for the Oscar–win­ning filmmaker.

Also nom­in­ated for best pic­ture today: the silent film “The Artist”; the fam­ily drama “The Des­cend­ants”; the Sept. 11 tale “Extremely Loud & Incred­ibly Close”; the Deep South drama “The Help”; the romantic fantasy “Mid­night in Paris”; the sports tale “Money­ball”; the fam­ily chron­icle “The Tree of Life”; and the World War I epic “War Horse.”

“The Artist” ran second with 10 nom­in­a­tions, among them writ­ing and dir­ect­ing nom­in­a­tions for French film­maker Michel Hazanavi­cius, a best-actor hon­our for Jean Dujardin and a supporting-actress slot for Berenice Bejo.

Dujardin, who won the Globe for best actor in a musical or com­edy as a silent-era star whose career goes kaput with the arrival of talk­ing pic­tures, will be up against Globe dra­matic actor win­ner George Clooney for “The Des­cend­ants,” in which the Oscar-winning super­star plays a dad try­ing to hold his Hawaiian fam­ily together after a boat­ing acci­dent puts his wife in a coma.

Other best-actor con­tenders are: Demian Bichir as an immig­rant father in “A Bet­ter Life”; Gary Old­man as Brit­ish spy­mas­ter George Smi­ley in “Tinker Tailor Sol­dier Spy”; and Brad Pitt as Oak­land A’s gen­eral man­ager Billy Beane in “Moneyball.”

Globe win­ners Meryl Streep (best dra­matic act­ress as Mar­garet Thatcher in “The Iron Lady”) and Michelle Wil­li­ams (best musical or com­edy act­ress as Mar­ilyn Mon­roe in “My Week with Mar­ilyn”) scored Oscar nom­in­a­tions for best actress.

Two-time Oscar win­ner Streep pad­ded her record as the most-nominated act­ress, rais­ing her total to 17 nom­in­a­tions, five more than Kath­ar­ine Hep­burn and Jack Nich­olson, who are tied for second-place.

Along with Streep and Wil­li­ams, best-actress nom­in­ees are: Glenn Close as a 19th cen­tury Irish­wo­man mas­quer­ad­ing as a male but­ler in “Albert Nobbs”; Viola Davis as a black maid going pub­lic with tales of white South­ern employ­ers in “The Help”; and Rooney Mara as a trau­mat­ized, venge­ful com­puter genius in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”

Octavia Spencer’s win at the Globes as supporting-actress for “The Help,’’ in which she plays a fiery maid whose mouth con­tinu­ally gets her in trouble, could give her front-runner status for the same prize at the Oscars. The same may hold true for supporting-actor nom­inee Chris­topher Plum­mer, who won a Globe for his role as an eld­erly dad com­ing out as gay in “Beginners.’’

An esteemed film and stage actor, Plum­mer went most of his 60-year career unac­know­ledged at the Oscars until earn­ing a supporting-actor nom­in­a­tion two years ago as Leo Tol­stoy in “The Last Sta­tion.’’ If he wins this time, the 82-year-old Plum­mer would become the old­est act­ing recip­i­ent ever; Jes­sica Tandy now holds that pos­i­tion for her best-actress win in “Driv­ing Miss Daisy’’ at age 80.

Also in con­ten­tion for sup­port­ing actor: Ken­neth Branagh as Laurence Olivier in “My Week with Mar­ilyn’’; Jonah Hill as a stat­ist­ics whiz in “Money­ball’’; Nick Nolte as a derel­ict dad mak­ing amends in “War­rior’’; and Max von Sydow as a mute mys­tery man in “Extremely Loud & Incred­ibly Close.’’

Bejo, the romantic part­ner of “The Artist’’ cre­ator Hazanavi­cius, was nom­in­ated for her role as a new star of the sound era in the late 1920s and early ‘30s. “The Help’’ co-star Jes­sica Chas­tain also was nom­in­ated as Spencer’s lonely, needy boss.

Also up for sup­port­ing act­ress are Melissa McCarthy as a crude but caring mem­ber of the wed­ding in “Brides­maids’’; and Janet McT­eer as a woman pos­ing as a male laborer in “Albert Nobbs.’’

Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock’s “Extremely Loud & Incred­ibly Close,’’ which got mixed reviews and has not been much of a factor at earlier Hol­ly­wood awards, was a very unex­pec­ted best-picture nom­inee. Von Sydow’s supporting-actor nom­in­a­tion also was a surprise.

Ter­rence Malick’s “The Tree of Life’’ also had been con­sidered a bit of a best-picture long­shot. The movie, which won top hon­ors at last May’s Cannes Film Fest­ival but was a love-it-or-hate-it drama among audi­ences, also picked up a dir­ect­ing nom­in­a­tion for Malick.

Oscar heavy­weight Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar’’ was shut out entirely, includ­ing for best actor, where Leonardo DiCaprio had been a strong pro­spect as FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover.

Other sur­prises included best-actor con­tender Bichir, who gave a ter­rific per­form­ance in “A Bet­ter Life,’’ a film few people have seen. Bichir beat out not only DiCaprio but also such act­ors as Ryan Gos­ling for “The Ides of March’’ and Michael Fass­bender for “Shame,’’ who had been high on Oscar fore­casters’ lists.

Also miss­ing out on nom­in­a­tions were Tilda Swin­ton for “We Need to Talk About Kevin,’’ Albert Brooks for “Drive’’ and Shai­lene Wood­ley for “The Descendants.’’

The best-director roster is loaded with past win­ners and nom­in­ees, includ­ing Scorsese for “Hugo,’’ Malick for “The Tree of Life,’’ Woody Allen for “Mid­night in Paris’’ and Alex­an­der Payne for “The Descendants.’’

“Mid­night in Paris,’’ Allen’s biggest hit in dec­ades, was the filmmaker’s first best-picture nom­inee since 1986’s “Han­nah and Her Sis­ters’’ and first dir­ect­ing nom­in­a­tion since 1994’s “Bul­lets Over Broad­way.’’ With his 15th honor for ori­ginal screen­play, Allen also exten­ded his lead as record-holder for most writ­ing nom­in­a­tions (Billy Wilder is second with 12).

The lone new­comer is Hazanavi­cius for “The Artist,’’ a crit­ical darling that has stacked up an impress­ive list of hon­ors and nom­in­a­tions at earlier awards since its debut last year at Cannes.

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