Mimes, Maui, Maids and Moscow Rules

When this year's Academy Award nominations were announced, my first thought was that I had enjoyed quite a few of the films on the list. After closer scrutiny, however, I realised that the nominated films didn't really correlate very well with my favourite movies of 2011. We Need To Talk About Kevin was completely ignored, although Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy did a little better, and The Artist and The Descendants got plenty of nominations. I saw The Artist on the last day of 2011 and so with a little more distance, I would probably bump it from my top five.

Anyway, here is my annual list of Oscar favourites--these aren't predictions, just my choices for each category.

Best Picture: The Descendants [seen 8/9]
Best Actor: Gary Oldman, TTSS [4/5]
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners [4/5]
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady [4/5]
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help [4/5]
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist [5/5]
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Ides of March [5/5]
Best Original Screenplay: A Separation [5/5]

To be honest, though, The Descendants didn't feel like a Best Picture when I watched it and I'm also not entirely happy with favouring Hazanavicius for Best Director, but as I was ambivalent about Hugo and Midnight in Paris, quite enjoyed The Help, disliked The Tree of Life and refuse to see Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, I didn't have much choice. But Tilda Swinton and We Need To Talk About Kevin would feature more prominently if I could choose from all the eligible films. Maybe Senna and Shame too...