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The 2012 Academy Awards nominations have been announced and while there are the expected batch of surprises and snubs, the winners and losers are readily apparent, even if the identity of Demián Bichir is not. The lavishly praised The Artist is still the movie to beat for Best Picture as its ten nominations make it one of only two titles this year with more than half a dozen nods. The surprise, however, is that Hugo instead of The Descendants has emerged as the strongest contender, at least on the basis of nominations. The Martin Scorsese 3D creation attained 11 nominations, and thereby claimed a piece of history.

Over the past five awards seasons, the only feature films to earn more nominations than Hugo are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was lauded in 13 categories, and The King’s Speech, which garnered 12. In fact, if we include the entire decade of results, there is only one more title added to the list, Chicago, which also had 13. Hugo ties The Aviator and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with 11. In evaluating the big picture result here, the Academy believes that in terms of overall quality, Hugo is among the six most triumphant projects of the past decade.

Before you grab your torches and pitchforks and head to the outskirts of my village to burn my home to the ground for stating such heresy, consider two things. 1) I’ve already had that happen in the past year and 2) I am not judging the overall quality of Hugo nor the awards season itself. I am simply stating that awards trackers oftentimes (lazily) define movies by the amount of Academy Awards nominations they gain. Through this finite lens, what Hugo accomplished today is amazing.

Now let’s rain on the parade a bit (and thereby douse your fiery torches). Here is a list of other titles over the past decade that earned at least ten nominations: True Grit, Gangs of New York and - if you didn’t know this already, it will blow your damn mind - Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. That’s right. All of those awards contenders that received so much media attention gained far fewer nominations. Martin Scorsese’s The Departed received five nominations, Crash earned six nominations, No Country for Old Men attained eight nominations and The Hurt Locker and Avatar managed nine each. Hugo smokes all of them with 11. If you had made that prediction with a straight face three months ago, you would have been laughed out of Vegas yet this is exactly what has come to pass.

Still, I want to emphasize that I believe The Artist is still the overall winner today. The fact that its primary competitor heading into the day, The Descendants, managed only half as many nominations designates it the clear favorite out of the established contenders. Yes, Hugo was slightly more popular overall with one more nomination, but eight out of its 11 selections were in technical categories and the one I consider a mid-major, Cinematography. Its “only” major nominations are in Adapted Screenplay, Director and Picture. And barring something unforeseen, Hugo will not win Adapted Screenplay or Picture, meaning that its only major category win would come in Best Director if that happens. I consider that unlikely.

Conversely, half of The Artist’s nominations are in major categories. Those are Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay. Only one other Best Picture nominee totals more than three nominations in the major categories of Acting, Directing, Screenplay and Picture, Moneyball with four. And I think we all agree Moneyball is unlikely to win Best Picture sans a Best Director nomination. In my estimation, this means that The Artist has separated itself from the pack and every other title selected for Best Picture is playing catch up.

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