Ah, 2011. The year that Hollywood made great films but the Academy refused to acknowledge them. Then again, maybe that’s every year. Anywho, I’m aware that I should have left links to the blogs that I pulled this information. So, these are all good blogs, you should check them out.

BEST ACTOR
ALICE IN MOVIELAND
AWARDSCIRCUIT
AWARDSNAZI
AWARDSWATCH
B + MOVIE BLOG
BREACH AWARDS
THE CINEMATIC SPECTACLE
THE FILM EXPERIENCE
A FISTFUL OF FILMS
GOLD DERBY
LOW RESOLUTION
OSCAR BEACHOUSE
SERIOUSFILM
TIT FOR TAT
GregNJ720

So now we enter 2011. Academy members should take notes. And to all you Oscar bloggers out there, this is for you.

BEST PICTURE

The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
Hugo
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Midnight In Paris
A Separation
Shame
The Tree Of Life

5/9. Not bad to start out with. You agree with the Academy that silence is golden. Other contenders included Certified Copy, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help and Weekend.

BEST DIRECTOR

Asgar Farhadi, A Separation
Michel Hazanavicus, The Artist
Terrence Malick, The Tree Of Life
Nicholas Winding Refn, Drive
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

3/5. Like 2012, The picture and directorial achievement split votes. So Best Picture went to the silent film while Best Director went to the film that was so weird that people convinced themselves it was conveying this deep, philosophical message that nobody could figure out. The only one who got close to the top five was Lars Von Treir for Melancholia.

BEST ACTOR

Jean Dujardin as ‘George Valentin’ in The Artist
Michael Fassbender as ‘Brandon Sullivan’ in Shame
Ryan Gosling as ‘The Driver’ in Drive
Gary Oldman, as ‘George Smiley’ in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt as ‘Billy Beane’ in Moneyball

3/5. There’s no doubt in your mind that Fassender, who broke onto the scene this year, should have won the Oscar. But you also liked Michael Shannon in Take Shelter, George Clooney in The Descendants, and Tom Cullen in Weekend.

BEST ACTRESS

Juliette Binoche as ‘She’ in Certified Copy
Viola Davis as ‘Aibileen Clark’ in The Help
Kristen Dunst as ‘Justine’ in Melancholia
Meryl Streep as ‘Margaret Thatcher’ in The Iron Lady
Charlize Theron as ‘Mavis Gary’ in Young Adult

2/5. Okay, I had never even heard of Certified Copy, but a lot of you seem to like it. Particularly Bincoche’s performance. Ultimately you sided with Viola Davis, although there was certainly praise for Tilda Swinton, Michelle Williams, Rooney Mara, and Elizabeth Olsen.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Albert Brooks as ‘Bernie Rose’ in Drive
Brad Pitt as ‘Mr. O’Brien’ in The Tree Of Life
Christopher Plummer as ‘Hal Fields’ in Beginners
Alan Rickman as ‘Severus Snape’ in Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part II
Carey Stoll as ‘Ernest Hemingway’ in Midnight In Paris

Eesh. 1/5. It was a tight race between Brooks and Pitt, but at the end of the day Pitt won. Bloggers also liked Patton Oswalt and Max Von Sydow. Surprisingly Andy Serkis was pretty low in the rankings, but I guess we’ll have to wait until Ultimate Snub 2002 to see Serkis get his due.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sarah Bayet as ‘Razieh’ in A Separation
Jessica Chastain as ‘Celia Foote’ in The Help
Melissa McCarthy as ‘Megan’ in Bridesmaids
Carey Mulligan as ‘Sissy Sullivan’ in Shame
Octavia Spencer as ‘Minny Jackson’ in The Help

3/5. Chastain had an insane year, so it makes sense that she won. There was also some love for Shailene Woodley and Berenice Bejo. But I’m telling you, if Ellen McClain were eligible here for her voice work in Portal 2, this category would be a whole different story.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The Artist
Bridesmaids
Beginners
Midnight In Paris
A Separation

4/5. You seemed to agree with the Academy that Allen’s time travel movie had the best screenplay. You voted for these five, with 50/50 and Young Adult close behind.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Drive
Hugo
The Ides Of March
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

4/5. The Academy got the screenplay categories pretty close this year. I got away, i was surprised by the result. I liked Moneyball too, but it was like a Slam Dunk winner. The Descendants and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close also got votes.

BEST FILM EDITING

The Artist
Drive
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Hugo
Moneyball

3/5. A lot of love for Drive here. Just missing the cut are Contaigon and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Artist
Drive
Hugo
The Tree Of Life
War Horse

4/5. Not even a contest. Tree Of Life‘s camerawork impressed even the ones who didn’t like the movie as a whole. Melancholia just missed.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Artist
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

4/5. Hugo wins this without even breaking a sweat. Close behind the nominees are The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Captain America, Midnight In Paris

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Artist
The Help
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

4/5. It was tight between Hugo and The Artist, with the former ending up winning. Anonymous and Midnight in Paris just missed the cut.

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIR

Beastly
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
The Iron Lady

2/3. Okay, two of the Makeup Nominees were set in stone and there was like a huge tie between a ton of other contenders. So I went with one of the top tiers – the film that I believe has the best makeup of the year, Beastly. And hopefully, nobody will complain about it’s inclusion. The Artist & Hugo just missed.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS X

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
The Tree Of Life
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Super 8

3/5. See that Academy? It’s called giving the Best VFX Oscar to the movie with the best VFX and not just the movie you like the best. Just missing the cut is Transformers 3 and Captain America.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

The Artist
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

4/5. The Artist’s score is music to my ears, overall a strong lineup.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Coeur Volant” from Hugo
“Life’s A Happy Song” from The Muppets
“The Living Proof” from The Help
“So Long” from Winnie The Pooh
“Star Spangled Man” from Captain America: The First Avenger

0/5. I think it’s a solid fact that the 2011 Best Original Song Category was one of the worst Oscar blunders in recent memory. Shame, because they had some good songs to chose from.

BEST SOUND EDITING

The Adventures Of Tintin
Drive
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Super 8

4/5. This category was Drive’s only inclusion on the Academy’s lineup, and it easily got the win. Hanna was just below the line.

BEST SOUND MIXING

Drive
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Super 8
War Horse

3/5. Again, similar to Sound Editing. You’d be surprised how many people group them together as one category. Follwing close behind are Hanna and Harry Potter.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

The Adventures Of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Kung Fu Panda 2
Rango
Winnie The Pooh

2/5. Good movies. Rango wins, while Puss In Boots just missed the cut

BEST FOREIGN FILM X

Certified Copy
Incendies
Pina
A Separation
The Skin I Live In

1/5. Not even close.

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Cave Of Forgotten Dreams
The Interrupters
Project Nim
Pina
Senna

1/5. I guess 2011 had an ‘scientists studying apes’ thing gong for it.

So, what was this year’s Ultimate Snub?

BEST ACTOR: Michael Fassbender as ‘Brandon Sullivan’ in Shame

He’s the person you most wanted to see win the coveted Best Actor award, the man who spends a good chunk of his movie in his birthday suit. I guess his performance is a huge step up from porn acting.

Hopefully this feature will keep going. At some point in the next few weeks, I’ll post the next one, where you should see some mentions of Christopher Nolan, Andrew Garfield and some movie about dragons or something.