'DAM 999' out, 'Hugo' leads Oscar nomination pack

Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" leads this year's Oscar nomination pack with 11 nods and "The Artist" is close behind with 10 nominations, while India's only hope "DAM 999" is out of the Academy Award race. The nominations were announced here Tuesday.

"Hugo", set in Paris of the 1930s, is about an orphan who lives in a train station, and is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton. It is adapted from Brian Selznick's novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret".

The movie has been nominated in the best picture, directing, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, writing (adapted screenplay), art direction, cinematography, costume design, editing and music (original score) categories.

"The Artist", which the bagged maximum trophies at the recently held Golden Globe awards, has been nominated for best picture, best director (Michel Hazanavicius), best actor in a leading role (Jean Dujardin), best supporting actress (Berenice Bejo), art direction, cinematography, costume design, editing, writing (original screenplay) and original score.

Both films, along with "The Descendants", "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", "The Help", "Midnight in Paris", "Moneyball", "The Tree of Life" and "War Horse", left Indian filmmaker Sohan Roy's $10 million "DAM 999" behind in the Oscar race.

The movie was among the 265 films vying for the best picture trophy. It also stood a chance to grab nominations in the original song and original score categories. However, it failed to feature in the final list.

India's other hope was the National award-winning Malayalam film "Adaminte Makan Abu" in the foreign language film category, but it failed to even find a place in the Oscar shortlist, released Jan 19. The final nominations for the category are "Bullhead" (Belgium), "Footnote" (Israel), "In Darkness" (Poland), "Monsieur Lazhar" (Canada) and "A Separation" (Iran).

The main competition in the best actor in a leading role category are George Clooney ("The Descendants"), Gary Oldman ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"), Brad Pitt ("Moneyball") and Demian Bichir ("A Better Life"), apart from Dujardin.

Those vying for the best actress trophy include Glenn Close ("Albert Nobbs"), Viola Davis ("The Help"), Rooney Mara ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"), Meryl Streep ("The Iron Lady") and Michelle Williams ("My Week with Marilyn").

Apart from Scorsese for "Hugo" and Hazanavicius for "The Artist", the directors competing for the golden statuette this year include Alexander Payne ("The Descendants"), Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris") and Terrence Malick ("The Tree of Life").

In the best actor in a supporting role, the contenders are Kenneth Branagh ("My Week with Marilyn"), Jonah Hill ("Moneyball"), Nick Nolte ("Warrior"), Christopher Plummer ("Beginners") and Max von Sydow ("Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close").

Berenice Bejo ("The Artist"), Jessica Chastain ("The Help"), Melissa McCarthy ("Bridesmaids"), Janet McTeer ("Albert Nobbs") and Octavia Spencer ("The Help") are competing in the best actress in a supporting role category.

Here's the list of other categories and their respective nominations:

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: Helene 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)

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)

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

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 Z hle and Stefan Gieren)
"The Shore" (Terry George and Oorlagh George)
"Time Freak" (Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey)
"Tuba Atlantic" (Hallvar Witz )

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 and Jim Rash)
"Hugo" (Screenplay by John Logan)
"The Ides of March" (Screenplay by George Clooney and 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 and Peter Straughan)

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