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

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

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

The Iron Lady

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(2011)

Genre: Biography/Drama

Director: Phyllida Lloyd

Writer: Abi Morgan

Producers: François Ivernel, Damian Jones, Adam Kulick, Cameron McCracken, Anita Overland, Tessa Ross, Colleen Woodcock

 

Nominee

Synopsis: A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power. (Written by IMDb Editors)

Cast:

• Meryl Streep
• Jim Broadbent
• Alexandra Roach
• Olivia Colman

IMDb - The Iron Lady

Cowboys and Aliens

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(2011)

Genre: Action/Western/Sci-Fi

Director: Jon Favreau

Writer: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Steve Oedekerk, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

Producers: Bobby Cohen, Johnny Dodge, Jon Favreau, Daniel Forcey, Karen Gilchrist, Brian Grazer, Randy Greenberg, K.C. Hodenfield, Ron Howard, Ryan Kavanaugh, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Steven Spielberg, Denis L. Stewart, Chris Wade

Nominee

Synopsis: The Old West.. where a lone cowboy leads an uprising against a terror from beyond our world. 1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don't welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It's a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he's been... (Written by Universal Pictures)

Cast:

• Daniel Craig
• Harrison Ford
• Olivia Wilde
• Sam Rockwell
• Adam Beach
• Noah Ringer
• Paul Dano

IMDb - Cowboys & Aliens

Short Review: The genre mashing of this film seemed strange to me at first, and as a result I expected something average…I was pretty much right. Not even the first-rate cast could save this forgettable film.

Moneyball

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 (2011)

Genre: Biography/Drama

Director: Bennett Miller

Writer: Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin, Michael Lewis

Producers: Mark Bakshi, Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Andrew S. Karsch, Alissa Phillips, Brad Pitt, Scott Andrew Robertson, Scott Rudin

 

Nominee

Synopsis: Oakland A's GM Billy Beane is handicapped with the lowest salary constraint in baseball. If he ever wants to win the World Series, Billy must find a competitive advantage. Billy is about to turn baseball on its ear when he uses statistical data to analyze and place value on the players he picks for the team. (Written by Douglas Young)

Cast:

• Brad Pitt
• Jonah Hill
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Robin Wright

IMDb - Moneyball