Awards season is upon us again with the 84th Academy Awards ceremony ready to capture the world's attention as nominees prepare to feel their hearts in their throats and millions watch on in anticipation.

This year's crop of nominations is interesting with some big surprises! South Africa's Skoonheid didn't get through in the foreign-language film category, probably due to its heavy content and it seems they've gone in favour of films broaching lighter subject matter. This explains the omission of Ryan Gosling, who had a great year with high hopes for his performance in Drive. Ironically, Martin Scorsese's lightest film to date... Hugo, has garnered the most nominations.

Other upsets include The Adventures of Tintin and Cars 2 being ousted in favour of Rango, Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2 in the best animated feature and Leonardo DiCaprio missing a best actor nod after featuring at the Golden Globes for his age-spanning character portrait, J. Edgar. Many Harry Potter fans and filmmakers must have felt slighted by so few nominations for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, possibly a comment on it being a Part 2?

While there have been some upsets, there has also been some good news. Comedy gets a boost with Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris plucking a few choice nominations, Melissa McCarthy reels in a best supporting actress nomination for her role in Bridesmaids and while not specifically a comedy, Jonah Hill got a tip of the hat for his support role to Brad Pitt in Moneyball. Then Terrence Malick's elemental The Tree of Life received proper acknowledgement.

Most people have pinned Meryl Streep for clean sweep for her embodiment of Margaret Thatcher in the The Iron Lady, in something of a return shot to Helen Mirren as The Queen. David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a somewhat controversial remake managed to rake in a few nominations with a full-tilt take on Lisbeth Salander from Rooney Mara and taut direction from Fincher. The Help, compared with Precious, gained some momentum with well-deserved performance nominations for Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.

The best thing about this year's awards, as demonstrated by the nominations, it's anyone's game. See the rest of the nominees... http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/84/nominees.html