And the Nominees Are...

This year's Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and gave me a full realization of just how far behind I am in watching movies right now. Usually, by the time the nominees are announced, I've seen at least half of the Best Picture candidates.

This year, I've seen only one out of nine: Midnight in Paris. And I've only seen a sprinkling of the nominated Actor and Actress performances.

But I still found a few things interesting about the nominees. First of all, there was the fact that Hugo received the most nominations -- 11. More often than not, the film most nominated is the one to beat for Best Picture. If true, then this year's race may be a bit more fluid than some of the critics have predicted. Most have been pointing to The Artist, with those who can't believe a silent movie will win in this day and age pointing at The Descendants instead. Could we really have a three horse race now?

I believe for the first time since the Best Animated Feature category was created, Pixar had an eligible film that didn't make the cut. And "deservedly" so there, since Cars 2 was absolutely feet and ankles below the rest of their catalog. (By the way, do you buy "feet and ankles below" as an opposite of "head and shoulders above?" I wasn't quite sure how to put that.)

A real flaw in this whole "let's nominate more than five films" thing they've been trying over the last few years is that it's really easy to just look at the five Best Director nominees and know which of the Best Picture contenders are the "also rans." Interesting that Steven Spielberg's omission this year puts War Horse in that category.

There are only two nominees in the Best Original Song category this year. It seems to me that all Oscar categories should expand or contract in a given year to incorporate worthy nominees -- or a lack thereof.

Looks like I have some serious catching up to do if I want to have anything remotely like an informed opinion next month.