A Separation

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(2011)
Language: Persian
Genre: Drama
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Writer: Asghar Farhadi
Producers: Negar Eskandarfar, Asghar Farhadi

  

Nominee

Synopsis: Set in contemporary Iran, A Separation is a compelling drama about the dissolution of a marriage. Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and daughter Termeh. Simin sues for divorce when Nader refuses to leave behind his Alzheimer-suffering father. Her request having failed, Simin returns to her parents' home, but Termeh decides to stay with Nader. When Nader hires a young woman to assist with his father in his wife's absence, he hopes that his life will return to a normal state. However, when he discovers that the new maid has been lying to him, he realizes that there is more on the line than just his marriage. -- (Written by Sony Pictures)

Cast:

• Leila Hatami
• Payman Maadi
• Sareh Bayat
• Shahab Hosseini
• Sarina Farhadi

IMDb - A Separation

The Artist

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(2011)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Director: Michel Hazanavicius

Writer: Michel Hazanavicius

Producers: Jeremy Burdek, Antoine de Cazotte, Daniel Delume, Nadia Khamlichi, Thomas Langmann, Richard Middleton, Emmanuel Montamat, Adrian Politowski, Gilles Waterkeyn, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jean Dujardin

   

Nominee

Synopsis: Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky's the limit - major movie stardom awaits. The Artist tells the story of their interlinked destinies. -- (Written by Weinstein)

Cast:

• Jean Dujardin
• Bérénice Bejo
• John Goodman
• James Cromwell
• Missi Pyle
• Malcolm McDowell

IMDb - The Artist

**Note: This is a silent film.

My Week with Marilyn

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(2011)

Genre: Biography/Drama

Director: Simon Curtis

Writers: Adrian Hodges, Colin Clarke

Producers: Kelly Carmichael, Cleone Clarke, Mark Cooper, David Parfitt, Colin Vaines, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein

   

Nominee

Synopsis: In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of 'The Prince and the Showgirl'. The film that famously united Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams), who was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Aurthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Nearly 40 years on, his diary account The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was published, but one week was missing and this was published some years later as My Week with Marilyn - this is the story of that week. When Arthur Miller leaves England, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce Marilyn to some of the pleasures of British life; an idyllic week in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of work. -- (C) (Written by Weinstein)

Cast:

• Michelle Williams
• Eddie Redmayne
• Kenneth Branagh
• Emma Watson
• Toby Jones

IMDb - My Week with Marilyn

Hugo

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 (2011)

Genre: Adventure/Drama

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writers: John Logan, Brian Selznick

Producers: David Crockett, Babara De Fina, Christi Dembrowski, Johnny Depp, Tim Headington, Georgia Kacandes, Graham King, Charles Newirth, Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff

  

Nominee

Synopsis: Throughout his extraordinary career, Academy Award-wining director Martin Scorsese has brought his unique vision and dazzling gifts to life in a series of unforgettable films. This holiday season the legendary storyteller invites you to join him on a thrilling journey to a magical world with his first-ever 3-D film, based on Brian Selznick's award-winning, imaginative New York Times best-seller, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." Hugo is the astonishing adventure of a wily and resourceful boy whose quest to unlock a secret left to him by his father will transform Hugo and all those around him, and reveal a safe and loving place he can call home. -- (C) (Written by Paramount Pictures)

Cast:

• Asa Butterfield
• Chloë Grace Moretz
• Ben Kingsley
• Sacha Baron Cohen
• Emily Mortimer
• Christopher Lee
• Helen McCrory
• Jude Law

IMDb - Hugo

Short Review: This film is utterly beautiful, and so so entertaining. Everything about it is exquisite, and I love the French Jazz style soundtrack. This is really so many of my favourite aspects of film, in one movie. The only criticisms that I have are the following: I feel Chloë Moretz overacts in some scenes, which I was surprised at, because I respect her and the parts she has played in past films. Secondly, I feel that it was wrong to promote this film as entirely a children's movie. Simply because the majority of the film explores specific areas of film history - something that I cannot imagine a child being interested in, and enjoying. Apart from these two points, the film is perfectly amazing.

Albert Nobbs

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(2011)

Genre: Drama

Director: Rodrigo García

Writer: Glenn Close, John Banville, George Moore, Gabriella Prekop, István Szabó 

Producers: Marcia Allen, Pierre-Francois Bernet, Glenn Close, Bonnie Curtis, John Eger, Susan Holmes, Julie Lynn, Alan Moloney, Patrick O'Donoghue

  

Nominee

Synopsis: Five-time Academy Award nominee Glenn Close stars in this emotional and thought-provoking tale of a woman forced to live as a man in 19th Century Ireland. After thirty years of keeping up the charade, a new love threatens to destroy everything she's worked so hard to build.. -- (C) (Written by Roadside Attractions)

Cast:

• Glenn Close
• Mia Wasikowska
• Aaron Johnson
• Janet McTeer
• Pauline Collins
• Brendan Gleeson
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers

IMDb - Albert Nobbs

The Descendants

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(2011)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Director: Alexander Payne

Writers: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, Kaui Hart Hemmings

Producers: Tracy Boyd, Jim Burke, George Parra, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

   

Nominee

Synopsis: From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning Sideways, set in Hawaii, The Descendants is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family's land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries. -- (C) (Written by Fox Searchlight)

Cast:

• George Clooney
• Shailene Woodley
• Amara Miller
• Nick Krause
• Judy Greer
• Matthew Lillard

IMDb - The Descendants

50/50

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(2011)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Director: Jonathan Levine

Writer: Will Reiser

Producers: Nicole Brown, Evan Goldberg, Kyle Hunter, Nathan Kahane, Ben Karlin, Kelli Konop, Tendo Nagenda, Will Reiser, Seth Rogen, Ariel Shaffir, James Weaver, Shawn Williamson

Nominee

Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, 50/50 is an original story about friendship, love, survival and finding humor in unlikely places. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen star as best friends whose lives are changed by a cancer diagnosis in this new comedy directed by Jonathan Levine from a script by Will Reiser. 50/50 is the story of a guy's transformative and, yes, sometimes funny journey to health - drawing its emotional core from Will Reiser's own experience with cancer and reminding us that friendship and love, no matter what bizarre turns they take, are the greatest healers. (Written by Summit Entertainment)

Cast:

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt
• Seth Rogen
• Anna Kendrick
• Bryce Dallas Howard
• Anjelica Huston
• Phillip Baker Hall

IMDb - 50/50

Beginners

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(2010)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Director: Mike Mills

Writer: Mike Mills

Producers: Mirand de Pencier, Fran Giblin, Lars Knudsen, Geoff Linville, Joan Scheckel, Leslie Urdang, Jay Van Hoy, Dean Vanech

  

Nominee

Synopsis: Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Mélanie Laurent) only months after his father Hal (Christopher Plummer) has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who - following 44 years of marriage - came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. (Written by IFC)

Cast:

• Ewan McGregor
• Christopher Plummer
• Mélanie Laurent
• Goran Visnjic

IMDb - Beginners