I have been a very delinquent blogger and I apologize for that.  Today, I shall be posting all four of my end of the year Top Tens (WordPress allowing) starting with this, my Top Ten film scores.  This year was a pretty bad year for film scores.  I actually struggled to find 10 scores that I liked from this year but here they are without further ado.

10. Super 8

Michael Giacchino is a composer who I have praised to high heaven for the past 10 years doing the composing for all of J.J. Abrams TV endeavours along with his recent films, but especially for his work on Up.  Now, he has given us two amazing scores this year, BOTH of which are on this list.  The first is for yet another J. J. Abrams film about aliens in a small town in 1979 and it is really good.  The way that the score switches from the tone of an innocent love story to a scene full of mysterious happenings caused by an alien presence to an action packed scene involving a train wreck or soldiers trying to capture the alien is just brilliant and deserves a spot on this list.

9. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by Alberto Iglesias

For most of these scores I have put on this list, you are probably going to hear about how it complemented the movie and that is true for all of them.  They all complemented the tone of the movie but this one was really great in that regard.  The use of the piano in Alberto Iglesias’ score was so brilliant in setting the subtle yet beautiful tone of the film and the way that everything in the movie just blended together in a harmony of greatness, much like any beautifully composed piano piece.

8. The Tree of Life by Alexandre Desplat

In a movie with very little dialogue (and I mean VERY little) the score is of paramount importance.  Now even though the score isn’t the highlight of this movie, it is still very recognizable and very enjoyable.  I mean this is a movie where I would literally be doing work and just turn it on just to listen to it for two and a half hours.  The way the instrument (I don’t even know what instrument it is) is used to its full capacity by the composer along with the use of opera-like songs and the organ is just beautiful and deserves recognition

7. Contagion by Cliff Martinez

What I have started to notice with recent Steven Soderbergh films (maybe with the old ones too I haven’t seen them) are that the score is a very integral part of his films, especially with Contagion.  There are a lot of sections in this film where even if there is dialogue, the score is a scene-stealer.  I mean every time that I hear the score start to play I have to restrain myself from closing my eyes and just focusing on it.  Cliff Martinez does a brilliant job with this score and deserves the number 7 spot on my list.

6. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol by Michael Giacchino

Now Michael Giacchino has given me even more reason to praise him.  This score was a brilliant piece of work.  With a movie like this which changes environments and pace at the snap of a finger Giacchino does a brilliant job stitching together the music between scenes so brilliantly you’d have thought that he had the orchestra there playing one 2 hour and 15 minute piece.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is why he deserves the number 6 position on my list

Click Here to see the Top Five!

Once again, I sat down to watch the yearly awards so to see not only an appalling ceremony with very few good points (most of them due to Ricky Gervais) and snubbing abound.  I have nothing more to say about this ceremony other than my predictions are in bold and the winners are underlined.

BEST DRAMA
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

ACTOR (DRAMA)
George Clooney - The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio - J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender - Shame
Ryan Gosling - The Ides of March
Brad Pitt – Moneyball

ACTRESS (DRAMA)
Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Rooney Mara - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton - We Need To Talk About Kevin

BEST MUSICAL OR COMEDY
50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn

ACTOR (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Brendan Gleeson - The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - 50/50
Ryan Gosling - Crazy, Stupid, Love
Owen Wilson - Midnight in Paris

ACTRESS (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Jodie Foster - Carnage
Charlize Theron - Young Adult
Kristin Wiig - Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn
Kate Winslet – Carnage

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Flowers of War (China) – Zhang Yimou
In the Land of Blood and Honey (Bosnia) – Angelina Jolie
The Kid With a Bike (France) – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
A Separation (Iran) – Asghar Farhadi
The Skin I Live In (Spain) – Pedro Almodóvar

ANIMATED FILM
The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks - Drive
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen - A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer – Beginners

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Bérénice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

DIRECTOR
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
George Clooney - The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Martin Scorsese – Hugo

SCREENPLAY
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash - The Descendants
George Clooney, Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon - The Ides of March
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Aaron Sorkin & Steven Zaillian – Moneyball

ORIGINAL SCORE
Ludovic Bource - The Artist
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Howard Shore - Hugo
John Williams - War Horse
Abel Korzeniowski - W.E.

ORIGINAL SONG
“Lay Your Head Down” - Albert Nobbs
“Hello Hello” - Gnomeo and Juliet
“The Living Proof” - The Help
“The Keeper” - Machine Gun Preacher
“Masterpiece” - W.E.

TV SERIES – DRAMA

American Horror Story

Boardwalk Empire

Boss

Game of Thrones

Homeland

ACTRESS IN A TV SERIES – DRAMA

Claire Danes – Homeland

Mireille Enos – The Killing

Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife

Madeleine Stowe – Revenge

Callie Thorne – Necessary Roughness

ACTOR IN A TV SERIES – DRAMA

Steve Buscemi – Boardwalk Empire

Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad

Kelsey Grammar – Boss

Jeremy Irons – The Borgias

Damian Lewis – Homeland

TV SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Enlightened

Episodes

Glee

Modern Family

New Girl

ACTRESS IN TV SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Laura Dern – Enlightened

Zooey Deschanel – New Girl

Tina Fey – 30 Rock

Laura Linney – The Big C

Amy Poehler – Parks and Recreation

ACTOR IN TV SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY

Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock

David Duchovny – Californication

Johnny Galecki – The Big Bang Theory

Thomas Jane – Hung

Matt LeBlanc – Episodes

MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV

Cinema Verite

Downton Abbey

The Hour

Mildred Pierce

Too Big to Fail

ACTRESS IN MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV

Romola Garai – The Hour

Diane Lane – Cinema Verite

Elizabeth McGovern – Downton Abbey

Emily Watson – Appropriate Adult

Kate Winslet – Mildred Pierce

ACTOR IN MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV

Hugh Bonneville – Downton Abbey

Idris Elba – Luther

William Hurt – Too Big to Fail

Bill Nighy – Page Eight

Dominic West – The Hour

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV

Jessica Lange – American Horror Story

Kelly MacDonald – Boardwalk Empire

Maggie Smith – Downton Abbey

Sofia Vergara – Modern Family

Evan Rachel Wood – Mildred Pierce

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV

Peter Dinklange – Game of Thrones

Paul Giamatti – Too Big to Fail

Guy Pearce – Mildred Pierce

Tim Robbins – Cinema Verite

Eric Stonestreet – Modern Family

I know I’m cutting it close, but I have just updated my predictions for tonight’s Golden Globes. I know that I haven’t seen half of the movies involved but you never know. I will make a results post tomorrow so anybody who doesn’t sit down for 3 hours to watch the Globes can be notified anyway

Set in Mississippi during the 1960s, Skeeter (Emma Stone) is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends’ lives — and a Mississippi town — upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen (Viola Davis), Skeeter’s best friend’s housekeeper, is the first to open up — to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community. Despite Skeeter’s life-long friendships hanging in the balance, she and Aibileen continue their collaboration and soon more women come forward to tell their stories — and as it turns out, they have a lot to say. Along the way, unlikely friendships are forged and a new sisterhood emerges, but not before everyone in town has a thing or two to say themselves when they become unwittingly — and unwillingly — caught up in the changing times. – IMDB.com

I have delayed watching this movie due to the fact that when I saw the trailer, it looked like the year’s token racism movie.  The trailer didn’t really make it look special in really anyway, just Oscar bait.  However, after all the praise the movie received and its nomination for a Golden Globe, I decided to watch it and my suspicions were confirmed.  It was Oscar bait, but very good Oscar bait.  It has everything, a good story, great performances, and some great comedy (which actually surprised me).

The story in this movie was really good and what I really like about it is that instead of the story focusing on plot points and a great connecting plot line, it focused on characters and how they reacted to the situations around them and that was great.  The way the characters dealt with their situation was just so well done.

However, this is a story that would be average at best if it were not for the performances that helped shape it.  All of them were great performances but I have to (as always) single out three people.  Viola Davis’ performance as Aibileen was amazing.  Every single scene with her was just so powerful and moving, she deserves that nomination in the Globes and even though I don’t think she’ll win (due to the other nominees) it would be a pleasant surprise if she did.  Octavia Spencer was great as Minnie.  She provided not only great emotional scenes, but also a lot of comedic relief and transitions between them not just with ease but seemingly without effort which is one of the hardest things to do.  However, what I think was the greatest performance in the movie was Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote.  Her seemingly ignorant defiance of societal norms along with her emotional scenes easily makes her the best actress in the entire movie.

Like I said, surprisingly there was some really great comedy almost exclusively brought on my Octavia Spencer but some moments can be attributed to Jessica Chastain (although I’m not entirely sure it was intentional.  However the best comedic moment in that movie involves a very delicious chocolate pie; that scene had me on the floor laughing until my abdomen hurt.

Overall, this movie with five golden globe nominations deserves your watch.

IMDB says 8/10

RT says 76%

I say 8.5/10

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) and his longtime trusted associate, Doctor Watson (Jude Law), take on their arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), with the help of Holmes’s older brother Mycroft Holmes (Stephen Fry) and a gypsy named Sim (Noomi Rapace). – IMDB.com

Ever since the first movie came out 2 years ago, I have been psyched to see what would happen if Guy Ritchie did a sequel to his Oscar and Golden Globe winning take on the iconic character Sherlock Holmes.  Now that he has, he brought Sherlock better than before.  The story was fantastic, the acting great, the visuals superb and the score was good.

What I really love about the Sherlock Holmes movies is that they are different from all of the other mystery/detective movies we see around the place.  Most of the time in stuff like Poirot and all those others what I always hated is that they show you none of the clues and within the last five minutes just spell out to you what happened and how the dude figured it out with absolutely no indication prior.  What Sherlock Holmes does is show you everything you need to know, not explicitly but if you pay attention to all the details in the scene (as Sherlock himself does) then you can figure out how everything comes together.  As in, there are some things that they can’t show. For example, things that happen outside the actual storyline of the movie, or how something feels or tastes but they show you that he feels something or tastes it and you know that it is important.

The acting in this movie is quite good but with all the people involved it is expected.  However, what was really amazing was the chemistry between the actors on screen.  I am not sure if this is because this is the second movie in the series or if the cast just works together, but you can tell throughout the entire movie that the cast is in sync with one another allowing for better performances, better comedic timing and a more entertaining movie overall.  I however, have to shine the spotlight on Jared Harris.  Once I heard that he was going to play Moriarty, I felt safe due to his amazing performance as the villain in Fringe and he lived up to my expectations.  His portrayal of Professor Moriarty was brilliant from start to finish.  Especially in the final scene when there is a great exchange between himself and Holmes over a chess game that just shows you how brilliant he is.

As I said above, the visuals in this movie were superb from beginning to end.  However, the one scene that stands out to me is a scene that was partly shown in the trailer.  The main cast is running through a forest while being shot at and the way Guy Ritchie uses the camera and the slow motion is just brilliant.  I could watch that scene over and over again once I own the Blu-ray.  Another thing that was really good but not as good as it was in the first film (probably due to the fact that they are very, VERY similar) is the score.  It is basically the same as the score from the first film and Hans Zimmer does a great job, but because it is that similar it just didn’t resonate with me as much as the score for the first film did and that is not a bad thing per say but just not good either.

Overall, this is a must watch film for EVERYONE.

IMDB says 7.8/10

RT says 59%

I say 9/10

A documentary on a former Miss Wyoming who is charged with abducting and imprisoning a young Mormon Missionary. – IMDB.com

Continuing with my documentary selections, I watched Errol Morris’ latest movie Tabloid.  Now, from I saw this trailer I wanted to watch this movie.  If anything, I wanted to at least see how this story turned out, which side was telling the truth that kind of thing.  Unfortunately this movie disappointed me completely.

The way the story was told was done quite nicely I must say with the little 1970’s TV showing all the footage that wasn’t interviews done for the movie.  However, the movie showed us nothing other than she said this happened and he said this happened and there is absolutely NO way to prove either story.  The thing is that other than Joyce McKinney, there was no one else there who even remotely supported her version of the story which led me to believe that the director was biased and that is the worst kind of documentarian, someone who already knows what the answer is before looking it up.

Another thing I really didn’t like about this movie was that after an hour of doing the “Manacled Mormon” story, they spent a good twenty minutes talking about Joyce and her dogs which had absolutely NO relevance to the story, her character other than to possibly question her “morality” when she cloned her dead dog for which I see absolutely no question but let’s not get into that discussion.

However, I do have to say despite all of its shortcomings, the movie is edited together very well allowing for good flow between modern day and the 1970s and the music was very well done.  That much I enjoyed.

Honestly, I have nothing more to say than don’t watch this movie.

IMDB says 7.4/10

RT says 91%

I say 3/10

The story of the monumental life and tragic death of legendary Brazilian motor-racing Champion, Ayrton Senna. Spanning the decade from his arrival in Formula One in the mid 80′s, the film follows Senna’s struggles both on track against his nemesis, French World Champion Alain Prost, and off it, against the politics which infest the sport. Sublime, spiritual yet, on occasion, ruthless – Senna conquers and transcends Formula One to become a global superstar. Privately, he is humble, almost shy, and fiercely patriotic, donating millions to his native Brasil and contemplating a life beyond motor-racing. Yet he is struck down in his prime on the blackest weekend in the history of the sport, watched live on television by 300 million people. Years on he is revered in Formula One as the greatest motor racing driver of all time – and in Brasil as a Saint. – IMDB.com

Before this summer, I REFUSED to watch any sort of documentary because to me it was like school.  Some people sit in a chair and talk to me about a subject for 90 minutes.  However, my brother decided to sit me down and make me watch a documentary, Man on Wire (which I reviewed on this site) and I was amazed.  My mind just couldn’t believe that documentaries could be good.  In fact, I was so amazed that I just HAD to sit down this Christmas and watch this 3 hour long documentary.

What this documentary did with the story is the same thing that Man on Wire did (which I loved), which is that instead of just having someone sit and talk to me for 90 minutes (in this case 3 hours) with some intercut footage is that it had mainly actual footage from this man’s life with his interviews, his races, him on vacation, driver’s meetings and when there was no commentary (for races) or people speaking in the footage, there was either music or voiceovers of the interviews done for the documentary and it had me engaged for the entire 3 hours and for a DOCUMENTARY to do that for me…. is great.

I have never been interested in watching Formula One on TV or in fact any racecar driving at all.  However, every time they showed a race in this documentary it blew me away with the air of excitement that is in the crowd and the commentators as Ayrton Senna is driving not only having physical driving battles with his opponents (especially Alain Prost) but the psychological ones as well and it was fantastic.  In fact it got me so psyched up that I was cheering when a race was on screen and I was in tears by the end when Senna transferred to the Williams/Renault team and further on his death.

The storytelling was not the only great thing in this movie but the music that went along with it.  The music melded with the footage in such a way that it made me wonder if when the footage was shot the made the music to go along with it when the documentary was made because I don’t think there is any way someone took 20 year old footage and cut it together with a score that perfectly, they just couldn’t have.

In essence this documentary was perfect and if you want to introduce someone to documentaries, then show them this movie.

IMDB says 8.7/10

RT says 92%

I say 10/10

Disheartened attorney Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti), who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, stumbles across a star athlete (Alex Shaffer) through some questionable business dealings while trying to support his family. Just as it looks like he will get a double payday, the boy’s mother (Melanie Lynskey) shows up fresh from rehab and flat broke, threatening to derail everything. – IMDB.com

 Before I start my documentary day today I decided I would review my most recent watch.  Ever since the trailer came out for this movie I have been excited to watch it, and for good reason.  This movie was good and I mean REALLY good.  The story was good, the acting was great, basically all you need from nowadays indie movies.

I really enjoy stories like the one in this movie.  I mean it’s no Lord of the Rings but it is still a good story.  The reason why I really enjoy these stories is that I believe that they could actually happen.  I mean I love watching Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and all those things but at the end of the day I know that the things in that movie could never happen and never will.  But with movies like Win Win, I can understand the characters’ plights, I understand their motivation for doing what they do and I believe that put in the situation present in the movie and given the opportunity that Mike Flaherty was given, you don’t know how people will react or choose in real life.  The cynics will say that all humans would do what was done but in truth you never know and that is what I love about stories like these.  It was written extremely well and kept me interested the entire time the film was running.

However, the main part of this film that deserves praise is Paul Giamatti’s performance.  I mean it was downright genius.  This man has been delivering great performances since the 1990’s and just continues to do it time and time again.  His delivery, his portrayal of emotion; all of it was amazing.  Surprisingly Alex Shaffer (who had never acted officially before) did a really good job.  It wasn’t very noticeable until the end of the movie when he dominated the screen (even though Paul Giamatti was on it) but it was still very good. Even though Jeffrey Tambor and Bobby Cannavale were both funny, it didn’t seem like they were doing anything.  It was as if they just took up space on screen that was only necessary for jokes, not story.

The other thing that was just average about this movie was the direction and cinematography.  The camera felt like it was placed in the standard indie movie positions and only moved when necessary.  There was absolutely nothing special about it and it could have been so much more special.  The cinematography didn’t enthrall me like a lot of movies have before and was just bland.

Overall, it was a really good movie with great performances that deserves watching.

IMDB says 7.3/10

RT says 94%

I say 8.5/10

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team (Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, and Jeremy Renner) are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States. An attempt by the team to stop him at the Kremlin ends in a disaster, with an explosion causing severe destruction to the Kremlin and the IMF being implicated in the bombing, forcing the President to invoke Ghost Protocol, under which the IMF is disavowed, and will be offered no help or backup in any form. Undaunted, Ethan and his team chase Hendricks to Dubai and from there to Mumbai, but several spectacular action sequences later, they might still be too late to stop a disaster. – IMDB.com

Starting off what I call “The Ultimate Movie Marathon Dash” (where I watch as many movies from the year as possible in order to give the best Top Ten of the year I can) is the latest installment in the famous Mission Impossible series.  I went into this movie with very high expectations (something that tends to not end well for me) from trailers, stills and reviews from the internet.  Now, this movie met every single one of them and more.  There was great story, amazing action and a wonderful score.

The reason why I think this story is great even though is basically like a lot of action stories out there is the perfect mixture of seriousness, camp and character development.  It brought back the style of the first movie but they did it better, made it more entertaining, while still keeping in touch with what Mission Impossible is supposed to be.  That was the problem with the 2^nd movie.  Even though it was a really fun and stylistic action movie with some great sequences (thanks to John Woo) it just didn’t feel like a Mission Impossible movie (if you get what I am saying).

Speaking of action, the action in this movie was AMAZING.  From the 1^st sequence with Josh Holloway (who I was sad I didn’t get to see more of) to the final fight sequence (and a line that I have been waiting to hear in this entire series just for fun) I was blown away.  Brad Bird did an amazing job with the camera and showing off every angle for every scene and it just made me wish that he and JJ Abrams divvy up the rest of the movies because they both did an amazing job with these last two movies and deserve to get full control over it.

Now you can’t talk about Mission Impossible without talking about the stunts and what crazy shit Tom Cruise has been doing.  Everybody on the internet knew about Tom Cruise on the outside of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and went “WTF is that dude doing???!!!” and wow was that stunt amazing.  I mean when the camera panned showing you how high up he actually was, I started having palpitations.  I mean DAMN that thing is high.  Anyways Tom Cruise turned up his crazy to 11 and did some really amazing stunts that I am sure when I get the Blu-ray I will just watch over and over again.

One thing I really noticed about that movie that I am sure more than 90% of the people in the theatre didn’t was Michael Giacchino’s superb score for this movie.  Sometimes I would find myself tuning out the action noises (car sounds and such) and just listening to that great score.  It is one I recommend you get ASAP and listen to it over and over.

Overall, this is a great movie and even though it hasn’t been officially announced, I can’t wait for MI5!!!!

IMDB says 7.9/10

RT says 93%

I say 9.5/10

Many of you, my faithful readers, may have been wondering where I’ve been these last couple of months.  Well let me tell you, med school takes up a hell of a lot more time than you’d think.  But, exams finished up yesterday and I figured I would start back posting for this Christmas break with current events.  I know I’m a week late but here are the nominees for the 69^th Annual Golden Globes!  As usual my predictions are in bold and I have not seen all of the nominations so this list will be updated before the Globes air on January 15^th.  Enjoy!

BEST DRAMA
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

ACTOR (DRAMA)
George Clooney - The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio - J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender - Shame
Ryan Gosling - The Ides of March
Brad Pitt – Moneyball

ACTRESS (DRAMA)
Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Rooney Mara - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton - We Need To Talk About Kevin

BEST MUSICAL OR COMEDY
50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn

ACTOR (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Brendan Gleeson - The Guard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - 50/50
Ryan Gosling - Crazy, Stupid, Love
Owen Wilson - Midnight in Paris

ACTRESS (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Jodie Foster - Carnage
Charlize Theron - Young Adult
Kristin Wiig - Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn
Kate Winslet – Carnage

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Flowers of War (China) – Zhang Yimou
In the Land of Blood and Honey (Bosnia) – Angelina Jolie
The Kid With a Bike (France) – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
A Separation (Iran) – Asghar Farhadi
The Skin I Live In (Spain) – Pedro Almodóvar

ANIMATED FILM
The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks - Drive
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen - A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer – Beginners

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Bérénice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

DIRECTOR
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
George Clooney - The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Martin Scorsese – Hugo

SCREENPLAY
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash - The Descendants
George Clooney, Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon - The Ides of March
Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
Aaron Sorkin & Steven Zaillian – Moneyball

ORIGINAL SCORE
Ludovic Bource - The Artist
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Howard Shore - Hugo
John Williams - War Horse
Abel Korzeniowski - W.E.

ORIGINAL SONG
“Lay Your Head Down” - Albert Nobbs
“Hello Hello” - Gnomeo and Juliet
“The Living Proof” - The Help
“The Keeper” - Machine Gun Preacher
“Masterpiece” - W.E.

TV SERIES – DRAMA
American Horror Story
Boardwalk Empire
Boss
Game of Thrones
Homeland

ACTRESS IN A TV SERIES – DRAMA
Claire Danes – Homeland
Mireille Enos – The Killing
Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife
Madeleine Stowe – Revenge
Callie Thorne – Necessary Roughness

ACTOR IN A TV SERIES – DRAMA
Steve Buscemi – Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad
Kelsey Grammar – Boss
Jeremy Irons – The Borgias
Damian Lewis – Homeland

TV SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Enlightened
Episodes
Glee
Modern Family
New Girl

ACTRESS IN TV SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Laura Dern – Enlightened
Zooey Deschanel – New Girl
Tina Fey – 30 Rock
Laura Linney – The Big C
Amy Poehler – Parks and Recreation

ACTOR IN TV SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock
David Duchovny – Californication
Johnny Galecki – The Big Bang Theory
Thomas Jane – Hung
Matt LeBlanc – Episodes

MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV
Cinema Verite
Downton Abbey
The Hour
Mildred Pierce
Too Big to Fail

ACTRESS IN MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV
Romola Garai – The Hour
Diane Lane – Cinema Verite
Elizabeth McGovern – Downton Abbey
Emily Watson – Appropriate Adult
Kate Winslet – Mildred Pierce

ACTOR IN MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV
Hugh Bonneville – Downton Abbey
Idris Elba – Luther
William Hurt – Too Big to Fail
Bill Nighy – Page Eight
Dominic West – The Hour

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV
Jessica Lange – American Horror Story
Kelly MacDonald – Boardwalk Empire
Maggie Smith – Downton Abbey
Sofia Vergara – Modern Family
Evan Rachel Wood – Mildred Pierce

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TV
Peter Dinklange – Game of Thrones
Paul Giamatti – Too Big to Fail
Guy Pearce – Mildred Pierce
Tim Robbins – Cinema Verite
Eric Stonestreet – Modern Family