The nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards have finally been unveiled. Many of the categories have fallen in line just as most have predicted (I fared alright with my predictions, but not great), with Hugo scoring 11 nods, followed closely by The Artist with 10. The biggest surprises are War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close getting in for Best Picture, the exclusion of The Adventures of Tintin from Best Animated Feature, and The Tree of Life nabbing Best Picture and Best Director nods (hooray!). On the snub side of things, despite landing the most precursor critics awards of any other actor in the race thus far, Albert Brooks was denied a Best Supporting Actor nod for his stellar work in Drive (boo). Additionally, Tilda Swinton was overlooked for giving the best performance of the year in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and AMPAS has no love for Michael Fassbender‘s haunting work in Shame.

There’s still plenty to be happy about, as Gary Oldman has his first ever Oscar Nomination (yes, that’s right) and Melissa McCarthy is a Best Supporting Actress nominee. Hit the jump to check out the full list of nominees. The 84th Academy Awards will be presented by Billy Crystal on February 26th.

The Writers Guild of America has announced their nominations for the 2012 Writers Guild Awards, and some of their nominations are pretty terrible.  It’s nice to see nominations for Young Adult, The Descendants, and Bridesmaids.  It’s less nice to see nominations for slavish adaptations of poorly written novels like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Help.  There’s also a major snub for awards-season favorite The Artist, and before you mention the “no dialogue” aspect, there’s still a script and the movie was in contention.  The documentary nominations also overlooked the terrific Project Nim in favor of Pina, which is borderline unwatchable for anyone who doesn’t love modern dance.

Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  Winners will be announced at the 2012 Writers Guild Awards on Sunday, February 19th. [Correction: The Artist was deemed ineligible by the WGA, but it's still a snub since the WGA's rules are kind of stupid in the first place]

Now that the Oscars officially have a host and a producer, we can get down to focusing on the films that will compete for the awards. Out of a pool of 124 qualified documentary pictures vying for contention, 15 have advanced through the voting process. This list will be further whittled down by the Documentary Branch Screening Committee to a selection of five nominees. Some of the 15 films include:  Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, about the continuing legal battles of the West Memphis Three (3); Project Nim, a study of Nim, the chimpanzee who was raised as a human child to allow researchers to discern the differences between men and beasts; and Buck, the story of Buck Brannaman, the real life Horse Whisperer. Notably absent from the list: the extremely well-received Formula-1 racing doc Senna. Hit the jump to see the rest.

The Sundance Film Festival Juries have selected the winners of the 2011 awards.  The big winner is Like Crazy, which won both the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) and a Special Jury Prize for actress Felicity Jones.  Naturally, Like Crazy already has a distribution deal in place with Paramount.  Circumstance, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Pariah are a few of the other winners in the dramatic competition.Notable documentary winners include How to Die in Oregon, Buck, and Project Nim. 

Click here for all of our coverage of Sundance, including reviews and distribution reports for these films and more.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners and the juries who handed out the awards.

The films playing in-competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival have been announced.  Some of this year’s competitors include Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut Higher Ground, Paddy Considine’s feature directorial debut Tyrannosaur, Matthew Chapman’s thriller The Ledge, Michael Rapaport’s documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life (which is about the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest), and a documentary about lovable Sesame Street resident Elmo (or rather, his puppeteer).

However, the movies playing in-competition at Sundance are only a fraction of the total number of films that play at the festival.  This will be my first year attending the festival and I’m super-excited about going.  Hit the jump for a full list of the in-competition films.  The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20 – 30th.