Aniruddha Guha's picks for Oscars 2012

In less than 12 hours, the 84th Academy Awards will be underway. Here, then, are my pick of the contenders in 21 different categories (I haven’t watched any of the Short Films [Live Action, Animation and Documentary], so they have been left out). Some of these are predictions, but a majority are my favourites in the categories they have been nominated under. 

• The Artist – Thomas Langmann
• The Descendants – Jim Burke, Jim Taylor, and Alexander Payne
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Scott Rudin
• The Help – Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, and Michael Barnathan
• Hugo – Graham King and Martin Scorsese
• Midnight in Paris – Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum
• Moneyball – Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, and Brad Pitt
• The Tree of Life – Dede Gardner, Sarah Green, Grant Hill, andBill Pohlad
• War Horse – Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy

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

• Demián Bichir – A Better Life as Carlos Galindo
• George Clooney – The Descendants as Matt King
• Jean Dujardin – The Artist as George Valentin
• Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as George Smiley
• Brad Pitt – Moneyball as Billy Beane

• Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs as Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis – The Help as Aibileen Clark
• Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as Lisbeth Salander
• Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady as Margaret Thatcher
• Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn as Marilyn Monroe

• Kenneth Branagh – My Week with Marilyn as Laurence Olivier
• Jonah Hill – Moneyball as Peter Brand
• Nick Nolte – Warrior as Paddy Conlon
• Christopher Plummer – Beginners as Hal Fields
• Max von Sydow – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as The Renter

• Bérénice Bejo – The Artist as Peppy Miller
• Jessica Chastain – The Help as Celia Foote
• Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids as Megan Price
• Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs as Hubert Page
• Octavia Spencer – The Help as Minny Jackson

• The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius
• Bridesmaids – Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo
• Margin Call – J.C. Chandor
• Midnight in Paris – Woody Allen
• A Separation – Asghar Farhadi

• The Descendants – Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash from The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
• Hugo – John Logan from The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
• The Ides of March – George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon from Farragut North by Beau Willimon
• Moneyball – Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin from Moneyball by Michael Lewis
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

 

 

• A Cat in Paris – Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
• Chico and Rita – Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
• Kung Fu Panda 2 – Jennifer Yuh Nelson
• Puss in Boots – Chris Miller
• Rango – Gore Verbinski

• Bullhead (Belgium) in Dutch and French – Michaël R. Roskam
• Footnote (Israel) in Hebrew – Joseph Cedar
• In Darkness (Poland) in Polish – Agnieszka Holland
• Monsieur Lazhar (Canada) in French – Philippe Falardeau
• A Separation (Iran) in Farsi – Asghar Farhadi

• 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 – Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
• Pina – Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
• Undefeated – TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay, and Richard Middlemas

• The Artist – Guillaume Schiffman
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Jeff Cronenweth
• Hugo – Robert Richardson
• The Tree of Life – Emmanuel Lubezki
• War Horse – Janusz Kamiński

• The Artist – Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
• The Descendants – Kevin Tent
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
• Hugo – Thelma Schoonmaker
• Moneyball – Christopher Tellefsen

• The Artist – Laurence Bennett and Robert Gould
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – Stuart Craig andStephanie McMillan
• Hugo – Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo
• Midnight in Paris – Anne Seibel and Hélène Dubreuil
• War Horse – Rick Carter and Lee Sandales

• The Adventures of Tintin – John Williams
• The Artist – Ludovic Bource
• Hugo – Howard Shore
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias
• War Horse – John Williams

• "Man or Muppet" from The Muppets – Bret McKenzie
• "Real in Rio" from Rio – Sérgio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, and Siedah Garrett

• 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

• 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, David 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

• Albert Nobbs – Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnson, and Matthew W. Mungle
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – Nick Dudman,Amanda Knight, and Lisa Tomblin
• The Iron Lady – Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

• Anonymous – Lisy Christl
• The Artist – Mark Bridges
• Hugo – Sandy Powell
• Jane Eyre – Michael O'Connor
• W.E. – Arianne Phillips

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler, and John Richardson
• Hugo – Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, and Alex Henning
• Real Steel – Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Danny Gordon 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 E. Butler, and John Frazier