Tom Tangney breaks down the Academy Award nominations

Award-winning film critic Tom Tangney interrupted his morning news gig Tuesday morning to listen to the broadcast of the Academy Award nominations list. Tangney appeared on 97.3 KIRO FM’s Ross and Burbank Show to give a full breakdown of the list of nominees.

“First off, the issue was how many best picture nominees there were going to be,” says Tangney. In years past, the Academy had five best picture nominees, but last year they tried out 10. After finding that number a little unwieldy, Tangney says they added a qualification requiring any Best Picture nominee to have 5 percent of first place votes to qualify.

“Everyone was guessing between five and seven,” says Tangney. “We ended up getting nine, which is one less than the unwieldy 10 so they may have to re-jigger that.”

The Best Picture nominees are: “Hugo,” the silent film “The Artist”; the family drama “The Descendants”; the Sept. 11 tale “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”; the Deep South drama “The Help”; the romantic fantasy “Midnight in Paris”; the sports tale “Moneyball”; the family chronicle “The Tree of Life”; and the World War I epic “War Horse.”

Listen to Tom Tangney on the Academy Award nominations

Martin Scorsese’s Paris adventure “Hugo” leads the Academy Awards with 11 nominations.

Tangney says he was originally suprised by Scorsese opting to do a film for children, but once he saw the film, he understood why.

“It turns out that the mean old crabby old guy that is selling toys inside the shop that is always after this kid who is always trying to steal a toy, it turns out he is Georges Melies, which if anybody knows anything about the history of cinema, he’s the guy he’s like the French pioneer of cinema, he’s the guy who made all those fantastic movies like the man with the rocket ship in the eye,” says Tangney. “It allows Martin Scorsese who is a noted film preservationist to go back and recreate in full bodied color these versions that we’ve only known through very rough, scratchy nitrate film in black and white.”

The film that ranked second in number of nominations was silent film “The Artist.”

“The movie that got the most nominations this morning, “Hugo,” about the birth of cinema. The one with number two “The Artist” about silent movies. Both movies are sort of honoring the early days of cinema,” Tangney points out.

Among the nominees, Tangney also notes the nominations earned by “Bridesmaids.”

Melissa McCarthy was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Bridesmaids,” and Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig, were nominated for their original screenplay for the film.

“There’s a lot of buzz on that,” says Tangney.

For biggest snub of the nominations, Tangney says “J. Edgar” was hit hard.

Not only did its star Leonardo DiCaprio not get a nod, but other notable people involved in the project also got no recognition.

“It was a big snub all the way across the board. Clint Eastwood got no recognition. The screenplay got no recognition. This is a big Hollywood effort.”

One of the tightest races Tangney sees among the nominees is for Best Actress.

“It’s seen as a contest between Viola Davis in the Help and Meryl Streep,” says Tangney.

Host Luke Burbank says he sees Davis taking it.

“Viola Davis will get it I think in a walk, because if I’m voting in that, Meryl Streep she goes to sleep on a bed full of Oscars and Golden Globes every night, and Viola Davis is this plucky African American, likable.”

But Tom says things really aren’t that simple.

“The problem with Meryl Streep is she gets a great role every year. She hasn’t won for over 20 years. We forget that. We think that she’s won 17 Oscars. She’s been nominated that many times, but she hasn’t won an Oscar for 20 years, so it’s a shame for her, but at the same time how many chances does an African American actress get to have a lead in a Best Picture nominee and get a chance?”

The 84th Annual Academy Awards will air Feb. 26.

View the full list of Academy Award nominations.

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
The Associated Press contributed to this report.