Film teranyar karya Martin Scorsese, Hugo, berhasil memimpin daftar perolehan nominasi The 84th Annual Academy Awards. Hugo berhasil meraih sebelas nominasi, termasuk nominasi di kategori Best Picture, Best Achievement in Directing dan Best Adapted Screenplay. Menyusul di belakang Hugo adalah film bisu hitam putih asal Perancis, The Artist, yang memang diprediksikan akan memperoleh banyak nominasi dan akhirnya berhasil meraup sepuluh nominasi Academy Awards termasuk di kategori Best Picture, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Actor in a Leading Rolde, Best Actress in a Supporting Role dan Best Original Screenplay.

Setelah hampir ditinggalkan banyak ajang penghargaan besar selama beberapa bulan terakhir, karya perdana Terrence Malick dalam enam tahun, The Tree of Life, mendapatkan tiga nominasi di ajang The 84th Annual Academy Awards, termasuk nominasi di kategori Best Picture dan Best Achievement in Directing – walaupun cukup mengherankan mengapa AMPAS meninggalkan The Tree of Life di kategori Best Film Editing dan Best Visual Effects. Kejutan juga datang di beberapa nominasi ketika AMPAS memilih untuk meninggalkan penampilan Michael Fassbender dalam Shame – sebuah kesalahan besar! – dan Leonardo DiCaprio dalam J. Edgar untuk memberikan tempat pada penampilan Demián Bichir lewat A Better Life dan Gary Oldman dalam Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Oh, dan nominasi yang diperoleh Oldman merupakan nominasi Academy Awards perdananya semenjak memulai karirnya di dunia film pada tahun 1982.

Kejutan-kejutan lainnya muncul ketika AMPAS berhasil memilih nama-nama seperti Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), Nick Nolte (Warrior) dan Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) untuk mendapatkan nominasi di kategori akting dan menyingkirkan nama-nama seperti Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), Albert Brooks (Drive) dan Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) yang semenjak awal musim penghargaan film di akhir tahun lalu telah banyak difavoritkan untuk mendapatkan nominasi Academy Awards. Tenggelamnya nama Swinton untuk tahun ini menjadi kali ketiga bagi aktris tersebut untuk diacuhkan dalam nominasi Academy Awards setelah dua tahun sebelumnya penampilannya yang mendapat banyak pujian kritikus dalam film Julia (2008) dan I Am Love (2009) juga tidak mendapatkan rekognisi yang layak dari Academy Awards.

Para pemenang The 84th Annual Academy Awards akan diumumkan pada tanggal 26 Februari 2012 mendatang.

Berikut daftar lengkap nominasi The 84th Annual Academy Awards:

• The Artist – Thomas Langmann
• The Descendants – Jim Burke, Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Scott Rudin
• The Help – Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan
• Hugo – Graham King and Martin Scorsese
• Midnight in Paris – Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum
• Moneyball – Michael De Luca, Rachel Horowitz and Brad Pitt
• The Tree of Life – Dede Gardner, Sarah Green, Grant Hill, Brad Pitt and Bill Pohlad
• War Horse – Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy

• Demián Bichir – A Better Life as Carlos Galindo
• George Clooney – The Descendants as Matt King
• Jean Dujardin – The Artist as George Valentin
• Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy as George Smiley
• Brad Pitt – Moneyball as Billy Beane

• Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs as Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis - The Help as Aibileen Clarke
• Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as Lisbeth Salander
• Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady as Margaret Thatcher
• Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn as Marilyn Monroe

• Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn as Laurence Olivier
• Jonah Hill - Moneyball as Peter Brand
• Nick Nolte - Warrior as Paddy Conlon
• Christopher Plummer - Beginners as Hal Fields
• Max von Sydow - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as The Renter

• Bérénice Bejo - The Artist as Peppy Miller
• Jessica Chastain - The Help as Celia Foote
• Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids as Megan
• Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs as Hubert Page
• Octavia Spencer - The Help as Minny Jackson

• The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius
• Bridesmaids – Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo
• Margin Call – J.C. Chandor
• Midnight in Paris – Woody Allen
• A Separation – Asghar Farhadi

• A Cat in Paris – Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
• Chico and Rita – Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
• Kung Fu Panda 2 – Jennifer Yuh Nelson
• Puss in Boots – Chris Miller
• Rango – Gore Verbinski

• Hell and Back Again – Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front – Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
• Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory – Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
• Pina – Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
• Undefeated – TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

• The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement – Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
• God Is the Bigger Elvis – Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
• Incident in New Baghdad – James Spione
• Saving Face – Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
• The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom – Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

• Dimanche/Sunday - Patrick Doyon
• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
• La Luna - Enrico Casarosa
• A Morning Stroll - Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
• Wild Life - Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

• The Adventures of Tintin – John Williams
• The Artist – Ludovic Bource
• Hugo – Howard Shore
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias
• War Horse – John Williams

•  Best Original Song

• “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets – Bret McKenzie
• “Real in Rio” from Rio – Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown and Siedah Garrett

• Drive – Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Ren Klyce
• Hugo – Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
• War Horse – Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
• Hugo – Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
• Moneyball – Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
• War Horse – Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

• The Artist – Laurence Bennett and Robert Gould
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – Stuart Craig and Stephenie McMillan
• Hugo – Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
• War Horse – Rick Carter, Lee Sandales

• Best Cinematography

• The Artist – Guillaume Schiffman
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Jeff Cronenweth
• Hugo – Robert Richardson
• The Tree of Life – Emmanuel Lubezki
• War Horse – Janusz Kaminski

• The Artist – Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
• The Descendants – Kevin Tent
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
• Hugo – Thelma Schoonmaker
• Moneyball – Christopher Tellefsen

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
• Hugo – Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
• Real Steel – Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier