The build-up to the biggest event in the entertainment calendar has kicked off overnight with the announcement of the Oscar nominations.
Hugo and The Artist lead the nominees with 11 and 10 nods respectively, with nominations in all the big categories including Best Film and Best Director.
There were several surprise omissions from this morning's announcement, the biggest being Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin missing out on a nomination for Best Animated Film.
“I am totally gobsmacked. As recently as last week, in fact in the last couple of days, Peter Jackson won a Producer’s Guild Award for Tintin and it wasn’t just nominated for a Golden Globe, it won the Golden Globe” says 3 News Entertainment Editor Kate Rodger, who speculates the 3D motion-capture movie may have fallen prey to Hollywood politics.
“Is this Hollywood, the establishment, is it the Oscars saying that motion capture, they don’t consider it to be animation?” she asks.
Rodger says on the good news front for Kiwis, Bret McKenzie gets the nod for his song ‘Man or Muppet’ from The Muppets. There are only two nominations for best song – a category which usually has five – so a 50/50 chance of McKenzie taking home an Oscar, and he isn't the only Kiwi with an Oscar nomination.
“Wellington's Weta Digital will also be popping the champagne corks this morning, their work on Rise of the Planet of the Apes has been recognised by the Academy, getting a nomination for Best Visual Effects,” says Rodger.
The Best Picture category sees The Artist and Hugo, both highly lauded by film critics the world over, go head to head.
“The really lovely thing about both of these films is that each of them is a love letter to film-making, so I can understand why Hollywood is embracing both of them,” says Rodger.
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3 News