Oscar nominations 2012 analysis: Nostalgia rules

A look at the certainties, surprises and shocks in this year's Oscar nominations.

The two films with most nominations - Hugo and The Artist - are both love letters to the early days of cinema. But both approach their subject matter in totally different styles. Martin Scorsese's Hugo, with 11 nods, celebrates the work of turn-of-the-century film pioneer Georges Melies, played by Sir Ben Kingsley.  Set largely in a train station in 1930s Paris, Scorsese uses lavish 3D and computer-generated imagery to tell his story.By contrast, in The Artist - with 10 nominations - director Michel Hazanavicius employs the film conventions of 1927. It is silent, shot in black and white and boasts an aspect ratio that may surprise audiences reared on widescreen. My Week with Marilyn's success in the acting categories - with nominations for Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh - shows the Academy spreading some love to yet another golden era of Hollywood. Elsewhere among the acting hopefuls, there is a broad mix of new faces and Oscar veterans. Believe it or not, Gary Oldman gets his first Oscar nomination for his role as British spymaster George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The BBC says the best actor category is completed by Mexican actor Demian Bichir as an immigrant working as a gardener in Los Angeles in A Better Life. (BBC)