Winners and losers in this year's Oscar nominations

LOS ANGELES — In the first year where the number of Best Picture nominees can be anywhere between five and 10, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences settled on nine Tuesday morning, with The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse doing battle for the big prize. Here’s a look at the winners and losers heading into Oscar season.

BIGGEST WINNERS

Martin Scorcese’s delightful Hugo garnered the most nominations with 11, with popular favorite The Artist right behind at 10. Stephen Spielberg’s War Horse and David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo received six and five nominations, respectively, though neither made it into the Best Director category. But the biggest winner of the morning is Bridesmaids — and comedy in general — with the raunchy box office hit pulling in nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay as well as Best Supporting Actress for Melissa McCarthy. And Gary Oldman finally earned himself an Oscar nomination for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

BIGGEST LOSERS

The biggest omission seems to be in the Best Animated Feature race, which Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin has been winning handily at other awards shows. But the European favourite didn’t earn a mention in this category, and neither did perennial animation heavyweight Pixar, whose Cars 2 didn’t live up to the company’s own standards. Outside of animation, Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-bait misfire J. Edgar failed to earn a single nomination. The biggest snubs in acting categories go to Michael Fassbender, who should’ve earned a Best Actor nod for Shame, and Albert Brooks for Best Supporting Actor in Drive.

BIGGEST SURPRISES

The pair of nominations for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close — Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor — seemed to come out of nowhere, as the film hasn’t made an impact in any other awards races. A Better Life star Demián Bichir, who also earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for his outstanding performance, is a welcome surprise that will hopefully bring attentention to an amazing but overlooked drama. And while Iran’s A Separation is unstoppable in the Foreign Language category, many expected Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood and Honey to at least garner a nomination, as it did at the Golden Globes. She’ll likely still be in attendance, though, to support Best Actor nominee Brad Pitt.

METRO’S PREDICTIONS

Best Picture: Whether we like it or not, it’s the year of The Artist.

Best Actor: A Gary Oldman win would be delicious, but it will likely be George Clooney. Not that it’s a bad thing.

Best Actress: Despite some impressive competition, Meryl Streep has it in the bag.

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer will take home the sole Oscar for the fantastic Beginners.

Best Supporting Actress: While a Melissa McCarthy nomination is exciting, it’s between Octavia Spencer and the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain, though our money’s on Spencer.

Best Director: Possibly the toughest category to call, we’re going to give the edge to Michel Hazanavicius and near sweep for The Artist.

MOST NOMINATIONS:

• Hugo — 11
• The Artist — 10
• War Horse — 6
• Moneyball — 6
• the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — 5
• the Descendants — 5

LIST OF NOMINEES:

Actor in a Leading Role

• Demián Bichir in A Better Life
• George Clooney in The Descendants
• Jean Dujardin in The Artist
• Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Brad Pitt in Moneyball

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn
• Jonah Hill in Moneyball
• Nick Nolte in Warrior
• Christopher Plummer in Beginners
• Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Actress in a Leading Role

• Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis in The Help
• Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
• Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Bérénice Bejo in The Artist
• Jessica Chastain in The Help
• Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids
• Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs
• Octavia Spencer in The Help

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

Directing

• The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
• The Descendants - Alexander Payne
• Hugo - Martin Scorsese
• Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
• The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick

Foreign Language Film

• Bullhead - Belgium
• Footnote - Israel
• In Darkness - Poland
• Monsieur Lazhar - Canada
• A Separation - Iran

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

Best Picture

• The Artist - Thomas Langmann, Producer
• The Descendants - Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Scott Rudin, Producer
• The Help - Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
• Hugo - Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
• Midnight in Paris - Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
• Moneyball - Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
• The Tree of Life - Nominees to be determined
• War Horse - Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

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 & Jim Rash
• Hugo - Screenplay by John Logan
• The Ides of March - Screenplay by George Clooney & 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 & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)

The Artist - Written by Michel Hazanavicius

Bridesmaids - Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig

Margin Call - Written by J.C. Chandor

Midnight in Paris  - Written by Woody Allen

A Separation - Written by Asghar Farhadi