Martin Scorsese looks set to sweep this year’s Oscars having racked up an impressive eleven nominations for his 3D adventure film Hugo. The critically acclaimed French comedy The Artist also did unsurprisingly well, and has been nominated for ten awards. The Help, Moneyball and War Horse all ranked up six nominations, while the recently released The Descendants received five.

Meanwhile, Meryl Streep received her 17th Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, and George Clooney and Brad Pitt are both up for Best Actor, Clooney for his performance in The Descendants, Pitt for Moneyball.

Here are the nominations for the all-important Best Picture award:

Moneyball - (Our Review)

Based on the 2003 book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, Moneyball tells the true story of former major league baseball player Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and his success as the general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, once the nation’s lowest-salaried Major League Baseball team.

The Artist - (Our Review)

As the era of silent films draws to a close, two actors find their careers and their relationship influenced by the coming of talking pictures. While popular screen star George Valentin resists the transition to sound, young Peppy Miller embodies a modern age that is leaving Valentin behind.

The Descendants - (Our Review)

The complexities of life, death and family relations challenge a man faced with losing his wife. When Elizabeth King is left comatose following an accident, her husband Matt finds himself thrust into the unfamiliar role of caregiver to their two daughters, while at the same time facing a difficult financial decision that may put him at odds with other family members.

War Horse - (Our Review)

War Horse is the story of a horse named Joey, who is sold to the British Army at the beginning of the First World War, and follows his subsequent adventures and those of his owner, Albert Narracott, who arrives in France desperately seeking his beloved steed. What’s amazing is that it works. In fact, it may well be Spielberg’s best since Saving Private Ryan.

Hugo

Hugo Cabret is a young Parisian orphan who lives hidden away in the vast Gare Montparnasse train station. When he is not eluding the station’s watchful inspector, secretly keeping its many clocks running, or tinkering with a mechanical figure that belonged to his father, Hugo observes the lives of the people who work in the station…including an irascible toy shop owner named Georges Méliès.
 

Midnight In Paris

Woody Allen returns to form with this love letter to Paris. On a trip to the city of romance with his fiancée, a screenwriter (Owen Wilson) is filled with nostalgia for the Paris of the 1920s, when artists and writers flocked to the City of Light in a celebrated period of creativity. For Gil, the romance of that bygone era exerts a pull that places him increasingly at odds with his impatient, unimaginative future wife.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

A young boy who may have Asperger’s syndrome must deal with the loss of his father on September 11. When eleven-year-old Oskar discovers a key among his father’s possessions, he becomes convinced that finding the lock it opens will help him understand the tragedy of his father’s death.

The Help

In the racially charged climate of Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963, a young white Southerner convinces a group of African-American maids to relate their experiences working in white households. The stories they share reflect the devastating social inequality governing every aspect of life in Jackson, and place the women at risk of reprisals from their employers.

The Tree of Life (Our Review)

A middle-aged man’s contemplation of the pattern and meaning of his life is interwoven with moments from his childhood in a small Texas town. As Jack O’Brien and his two younger brothers grow up, they are shaped by both the nurturing love of their mother and their demanding father’s strict discipline and unyielding expectations.

The winners will be announced on 26 February. Lay your bets in the comments below!