2012 Oscar Contenders
by ajsfacebookemail | created - 27 Nov 2011 | updated - 27 Nov 2011 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Like Crazy (2011)
PG-13 | 86 min | Drama, Romance
A British college student falls for an American student, only to be separated from him when she's banned from the U.S. after overstaying her visa.
Director: Drake Doremus | Stars: Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley
Votes: 63,278 | Gross: $3.41M
2. The Help (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Drama
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director: Tate Taylor | Stars: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 492,150 | Gross: $169.71M
3. Another Earth (2011)
PG-13 | 92 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
On the night of the discovery of a duplicate Earth in the Solar system, an ambitious young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident.
Director: Mike Cahill | Stars: Brit Marling, William Mapother, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, DJ Flava
Votes: 99,956 | Gross: $1.32M
4. Beginners (2010)
R | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer and that he has a young male lover.
Director: Mike Mills | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic
Votes: 94,785 | Gross: $5.79M
5. Hugo (2011)
PG | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
In 1931 Paris, an orphan living in the walls of a train station gets wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 336,670 | Gross: $73.86M
6. J. Edgar (2011)
R | 137 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
J. Edgar Hoover, powerful head of the F.B.I. for nearly fifty years, looks back on his professional and personal life.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Josh Hamilton
Votes: 133,572 | Gross: $37.31M
7. The Ides of March (2011)
R | 101 min | Drama, Thriller
An idealistic staffer for a new presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: Paul Giamatti, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ryan Gosling
Votes: 230,601 | Gross: $40.96M
8. The Tree of Life (2011)
PG-13 | 139 min | Drama, Fantasy
The story of a family in Waco, Texas in 1956. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence and struggles with his parents' conflicting teachings.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken
Votes: 184,016 | Gross: $13.30M
9. Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
R | 102 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.
Director: Sean Durkin | Stars: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes, Christopher Abbott
Votes: 55,784 | Gross: $2.98M
10. Moneyball (2011)
PG-13 | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
Director: Bennett Miller | Stars: Brad Pitt, Robin Wright, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 464,056 | Gross: $75.61M
11. The Descendants (2011)
R | 115 min | Comedy, Drama
A land baron tries to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident.
Director: Alexander Payne | Stars: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause
Votes: 251,650 | Gross: $82.58M
12. Midnight in Paris (2011)
PG-13 | 94 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.
Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Kurt Fuller
Votes: 449,577 | Gross: $56.82M
13. Rampart (2011)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama
Set in 1999 Los Angeles, veteran police officer Dave Brown, the last of the renegade cops, works to take care of his family, and struggles for his own survival.
Director: Oren Moverman | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster, Sigourney Weaver, Jon Bernthal
Votes: 25,225 | Gross: $0.97M
14. 50/50 (2011)
R | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.
Director: Jonathan Levine | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 342,789 | Gross: $35.01M
15. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
R | 158 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for 40 years by young computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 494,452 | Gross: $102.52M
16. War Horse (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A young farm boy enlists to serve in World War I after his beloved horse is sold to the cavalry. His hopeful journey takes him out of England and onto the front lines as the war rages on.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch
Votes: 165,504 | Gross: $79.88M
17. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
PG-13 | 129 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow
Votes: 105,139 | Gross: $31.85M
18. Drive (I) (2011)
R | 100 min | Action, Drama
A mysterious Hollywood action film stuntman gets in trouble with gangsters when he tries to help his neighbor's husband rob a pawn shop while serving as his getaway driver.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks
Votes: 703,691 | Gross: $35.06M
19. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
R | 127 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet Agent within MI6.
Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong
Votes: 212,345 | Gross: $24.15M
20. Young Adult (2011)
R | 94 min | Comedy, Drama
Soon after her divorce, a fiction writer returns to her home in small-town Minnesota, looking to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend who is now happily married and has a newborn daughter.
Director: Jason Reitman | Stars: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt, Elizabeth Reaser
Votes: 87,875 | Gross: $16.31M
21. Melancholia (2011)
R | 135 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård
Votes: 195,694 | Gross: $3.03M
22. Carnage (2011)
R | 80 min | Comedy, Drama
Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the discussion into chaos.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly
Votes: 132,948 | Gross: $2.55M
23. We Bought a Zoo (2011)
PG | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Set in Southern California, a father moves his young family to the countryside to renovate and re-open a struggling zoo.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Elle Fanning
Votes: 151,608 | Gross: $75.62M
24. The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
PG | 107 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
Intrepid reporter Tintin and Captain Haddock set off on a treasure hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock's ancestor.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg
Votes: 243,067 | Gross: $77.59M
25. In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)
R | 127 min | Drama, Romance, War
During the Bosnian War, Danijel, a soldier fighting for the Serbs, re-encounters Ajla, a Bosnian who's now a captive in his camp he oversees. Their once promising connection has become ambiguous as their motives have changed.
Director: Angelina Jolie | Stars: Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Rade Serbedzija, Vanessa Glodjo
Votes: 34,644 | Gross: $0.30M
26. The Artist (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When George, a silent movie superstar, meets Peppy Miller, a dancer, sparks fly between the two. However, after the introduction of talking pictures, their fortunes change, affecting their dynamic.
Director: Michel Hazanavicius | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
Votes: 248,512 | Gross: $44.67M
27. Take Shelter (2011)
R | 120 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.
Director: Jeff Nichols | Stars: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Tova Stewart
Votes: 107,950 | Gross: $1.73M
28. The Iron Lady (2011)
PG-13 | 105 min | Biography, Drama
An elderly Margaret Thatcher talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene.
Director: Phyllida Lloyd | Stars: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant, Susan Brown
Votes: 113,576 | Gross: $30.02M
29. A Dangerous Method (2011)
R | 99 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel
Votes: 108,280 | Gross: $5.70M
30. Brighton Rock (2010)
R | 111 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Charts the headlong fall of Pinkie, a razor-wielding disadvantaged teenager with a religious death wish.
Director: Rowan Joffe | Stars: Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Helen Mirren, John Hurt
Votes: 6,763
31. Shame (2011)
NC-17 | 101 min | Drama
A sex addict's carefully cultivated private life falls apart after his sister arrives for an indefinite stay.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Lucy Walters
Votes: 206,111 | Gross: $4.00M
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