Road to Oscars has been paved

Proving that hell can freeze over, but only before morphing into a mechanical three-headed dog with wheels for paws, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” has been nominated for three Oscars.

It’s one of many, uh, surprises revealed Tuesday by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (no wonder people just thank “The Academy”) in its list of nominees for the 84th annual Academy Awards.

“Dark of the Moon,” the latest in Hollywood’s onslaught of movies based on toys, is up for Oscars in visual effects, sound mixing and sound editing, and it’s accomplished something that best picture nominees “The Artist” and “The Descendants” have not – it’s played in Boone.

Only a mere handful of this year’s nominated films have been screened in the High Country, and by “handful” I mean 18 of the 60 total. To be fair, 15 of those 60 are short features you’d be hard-pressed to find in any Cineplex anywhere.

Fortunately, there are alternatives, meaning it’s high time to hit up your local video store (Fat Cats is a good ’un), queue up the Netflix, visit an off-the-mountain cinema or hope for the best.
Without further ado, this year’s nominees are:

Best Picture
“The Artist,” “The Descendants,” “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” “The Help,” “Hugo,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Moneyball,” “The Tree of Life,” “War Horse”

Best Actor
Demián Bichir for “A Better Life,” George Clooney for “The Descendants,” Jean Dujardin for “The Artist,” Gary Oldman for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” Brad Pitt for “Moneyball”

Best Actress
Glenn Close for “Albert Nobbs,” Viola Davis for “The Help,” Rooney Mara for 2011’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Meryl Streep for “The Iron Lady,” Michelle Williams for “My Week with Marilyn”

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh for “My Week with Marilyn,” Jonah Hill for “Moneyball,” Nick Nolte for “Warrior,” Christopher Plummer for “Beginners,” Max von Sydow for “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”

Best Supporting Actress
Bérénice Bejo for “The Artist,” Jessica Chastain for “The Help,” Melissa McCarthy for “Bridesmaids,” Janet McTeer for “Albert Nobbs,” Octavia Spencer for “The Help”

Best Director
Woody Allen for “Midnight in Paris,” Michel Hazanavicius for “The Artist,” Terrence Malick for “The Tree of Life,” Alexander Payne for “The Descendants,” Martin Scorsese for “Hugo”

Best Original Screenplay
“The Artist” (Michel Hazanavicius), “Bridesmaids” (Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo), “Margin Call” (J.C. Chandor), “Midnight in Paris” (Woody Allen), “A Separation” (Asghar Farhadi)

Best Adapted Screenplay
“The Descendents” (Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash), “Hugo” (John Logan), “The Ides of March” (George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon), “Moneyball” (Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin), “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan)

Best Animated Feature Film
“A Cat in Paris,” “Chico & Rita,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “Puss in Boots,” “Rango”

Best Foreign Film
“Bullhead” (Belgium), “Footnote” (Israel), “In Darkness” (Poland), “Monsieur Lazhar” (Canada), “A Separation” (Iran)

Best Cinematography
Guillaume Schiffman for “The Artist,” Jeff Cronenweth for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” Robert Richardson for “Hugo,” Emmanuel Lubezki for “The Tree of Life,” Janusz Kaminski for “War Horse”

Best Editing
“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)

Best Art Direction
“The Artist” (Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould), “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” (Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan), “Hugo” (Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo), “Midnight in Paris” (Anne Seibel, Hélène Dubreuil), “War Horse” (Rick Carter, Lee Sandales)

Best Costume Design
“Anonymous” (Lisy Christl), “The Artist” (Mark Bridges), “Hugo” (Sandy Powell), “Jane Eyre” (Michael O’Connor), “W.E.” (Arianne Phillips)

Best Makeup
“Albert Nobbs” (Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnson, Matthew W. Mungle), “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” (Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin), “The Iron Lady” (Mark Coulier, J. Roy Helland)

Best Original Score
John Williams for “The Adventures of Tintin,” Ludovic Bource for “The Artist,” Howard Shore for “Hugo,” Alberto Iglesias for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” John Williams for “War Horse”

Best Original Song
“The Muppets” for “Man or Muppet” by Bret McKenzie, “Rio” for “Real in Rio” by Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, Siedah Garrett

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

Best Sound Editing
“Drive” (Lon Bender, Victor Ray Ennis), “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (Ren Klyce) “Hugo” (Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty), “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” (Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl), “War Horse” (Richard Hymns, Gary Rydstrom)

Best Visual Effects
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” (Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler, John Richardson) “Hugo” (Robert Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, Alex Henning), “Real Steel” (Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Danny Gordon Taylor, Swen Gillberg), “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, Daniel Barrett), “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” (Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew E. Butler, John Frazier)

Best Feature Documentary
“Hell and Back Again,” “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front,” “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” “Pina,” “Undefeated”

Best Short Documentary
“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement,” “God Is the Bigger Elvis,” “Incident in New Baghdad,” “Saving Face,” “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”

Best Short Animated Film
“Dimanche,” “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” “La Luna,” “A Morning Stroll,” “Wild Life”

Best Live Action Short Film
“Pentecost,” “Raju,” “The Shore,” “Time Freak,” “Tuba Atlantic”

The 84th annual Academy Awards air on ABC Sunday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.oscars.org.

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Editor's Note

Since the story was originally published, "The Descendants" appeared at Regal Cinema 7 in Boone, bringing the total of 2012 Academy Award nominated films screened in Boone to 19 out of 60.