On Monday, our film expert Franklin Laviola shared his predictions for the approaching Academy Awards nominations.  Not surprisingly, he did quite well: 71 out of 104 nominations correct, perfect performances in the Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film Categories, and a spot-on prediction that Hugo and The Artist would lead all films with 11 and 10 nominations, respectively.  He also correctly predicted that Jennifer Lawrence would look like this:

Of course, the fact that Mr. Laviola correctly predicted many of the nominations does not mean that he agreed with them.  Thankfully, he stopped by to give us some quick thoughts on the best and worst of the Academy’s choices.  Let us know if you agree.

THE GOOD …

The Tree of Life nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Terrence Malick), and Best Cinematography

Hugo nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director (Martin Scorsese)

Nick Nolte (Warrior) nominated for Best Supporting Actor

Brad Pitt (Moneyball) nominated for Best Actor

Gary Oldman (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) nominated for Best Actor, shockingly his first (!) Oscar nomination ever

Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) nominated for Best Actress

The standout actresses of The Help — Viola Davis (Best Actress), Octavia Spencer (Best Supporting Actress), and, especially, Jessica Chastain (Best Supporting Actress) — all recognized

Drive nominated for Best Sound Editing

Anonymous nominated for Best Costume Design

A Separation nominated for Best Original Screenplay

THE BAD …

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close nominated for Best Picture

The Artist nominated for 10 Oscars

The Descendants nominated for 5 Oscars

Bridesmaids nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Melissa McCarthy) and Best Original Screenplay

Transformers: Dark of the Moon nominated for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing

The Tree of Life snubbed for Best Visual Effects, not to mention a number of other categories

Drive snubbed in almost every category, including Best Picture, Best Director (Nicolas Winding Refn), Best Actor (Ryan Gosling), Best Supporting Actor (Albert Brooks), Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Score

Michael Shannon (Take Shelter) snubbed for Best Actor

The Adventures of Tintin snubbed for Best Animated Feature

Both of Werner Herzog’s films (Cave of Forgotten Dreams & Into the Abyss) not even deemed eligible for the Best Documentary Feature category

Franklin P. Laviola is a filmmaker and freelance writer, based in the New York area. He wrote and directed the award-winning short film “Happy Face,” which has screened at over twenty film festivals. He recently wrote on the 10 Best Films from the 2011 New York Film Festival. Stay tuned for his list of the best and worst movies of 2011.