The nominees for the 84th annual Academy Awards were announced early this morning, and Hugo leads the way with a whopping 11 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Martin Scorsese. The Artist was a close second with 10 nominations -- also including Best Picture and Director for French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius.



Did your favorite films of 2011 make the cut?

First, the biggie: Best Picture! Nominees for the 2012 Oscars for Best Picture include Hugo, The Artist, The Help, Moneyball, War Horse, The Descendants, The Tree of Life, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Midnight in Paris. Of these, I've seen several and my personal favorite is The Help. To be fair, I have NOT seen The Artist yet - though I'm told it's phenomenal.

I suspect that The Help and The Artist are the strong frontrunners in this category.

Nominees for Best Actress include Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs, Rooney Mara for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Viola Davis for The Help, Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady and Michelle Williams for My Week With Marilyn. This is Streep's 17th Oscar nomination, though she hasn't won since Sophie's Choice back in 1982. I'd say she's a favorite, but definitely not a lock. Viola Davis is another extremely strong contender.

The 2012 Academy Awards Best Actor Nominees include George Clooney for The Descendants, Jean Dujardin for The Artist, Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Brad Pitt for Moneyball and Demian Bichir for A Better Life. I'm leaning toward Jean Dujardin in this category. Gary Oldman, by the way, just got his FIRST EVER Oscar nomination. First. Ever.

Okay, let's keep going. Nominees for Best Supporting Actress at the 2012 Academy Awards include Berenice Bejo for The Artist, Octavia Spencer for The Help, Jessica Chastain for The Help, Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids and Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs. The frontrunner here has got to be Octavia Spencer - she did win the 2012 Golden Globe in the same category - but I'm really excited to see Melissa McCarthy get the nod for Bridesmaids. She was hilarious!



In the Best Supporting Actor category, the nominees are Kenneth Branagh for My Week With Marilyn, Jonah Hill for Moneyball, Nick Nolte for Warrior, Christopher Plummer for Beginners and

Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Wow, where's Albert Brooks for Drive? Snub! In keeping with my "I only comment if I've seen the movie" theme here, I'm going with Jonah Hill for Moneyball, but wow he's in a category with HEAVY hitters. Plummer won the Golden Globe in this category, so he'll probably be Hollywood's odds-on favorite.



Finally, the Best Director 2012 Oscar nominees are Michel Hazanivicus for The Artist, Alexander Payne for The Descendants, Martin Scorsese for Hugo, Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris and

Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life. Favorite? Scorsese. Hugo was a true masterpiece. Hazanivicus and The Artist could also win.



So now we have it. Winners of the 84th annual Academy Awards will be announced in Los Angeles on February 26, 2012. Did your favorite movies make the list? Who do you think is a shoe-in to win this year?