2012
Room 237
(2012)
Rodney Ascher
2 wins & 16 nominations
A subjective documentary that explores the numerous theories about the hidden meanings within Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining (1980). The film may be over 30 years old but it continues to inspire debate, speculation, and mystery. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments. Together they'll draw the audience into a new maze, one with endless detours and dead ends, many ways in, but no way out.
Safe House
(2012)
David Guggenheim
1 win & 7 nominations.
Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a CIA rookie who is manning a safe house in Cape Town, South Africa, when Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) the CIA's most wanted rogue agent is captured and taken to the safe house. During Frost's interrogation, the safe house is overtaken by mercenaries who want Frost. Weston and Frost escape and must stay out of the gunmen's sight until they can get to another safe house.
Searching for Sugar Man
(2012)
Malik Bendjelloul, Stephen Segerman, Craig Bartholomew Strydom
Won 1 Oscar. 44 wins & 33 nominations total
In the early 1970s, Sixto Rodriguez was a Detroit folksinger who had a short-lived recording career with only two well received but non-selling albums. Unknown to Rodriguez, his musical story continued in South Africa where he became a pop music icon and inspiration for generations. Long rumored there to be dead by suicide, a few fans in the 1990s decided to seek out the truth of their hero's fate. What follows is a bizarrely heartening story in which they found far more in their quest than they ever hoped, while a Detroit construction laborer discovered that his lost artistic dreams came true after all.
Seven Psychopaths
(2012)
Martin McDonagh
3 wins & 21 nominations.
A struggling screenwriter (Colin Farrell) inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his friends (Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell) kidnap a gangster's (Woody Harrelson) beloved Shih Tzu.
Sightseers
(2012)
Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Amy Jump (additional material)
11 wins & 17 nominations.
Chris wants to show girlfriend Tina his world, but events soon conspire against the couple and their dream caravan holiday takes a very wrong turn.
Sinister
(2012)
Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill
3 wins & 13 nominations.
True-crime writer Ellison Oswalt moves himself and his family into a house where a horrific crime took place earlier, but his family doesn't know. He begins researching the crime so that he can write a new book about it to help his flailing career. He uses some "snuff" film footage he finds in the house to help him in his research, but he soon finds more than he bargained for. There is a figure in each of the films but who or what is it? As a result, his family start to suffer (as does he) and things take a turn for the worse. Will they survive?
Spike Island
(2012)
Chris Coghill (screenplay)
1 nomination.
A wannabe rock band in Manchester hatch a plan to hand-deliver their demo tape to their idols, The Stone Roses, at the band's impending gig at Spike Island. But when their tickets fail to materialize, the gang embarks on a road trip to the concert and is forced to take extreme measures to sneak their way in. Along the way, friendships are tested and their futures are shaped - together or apart.
The Bourne Legacy
(2012)
Tony Gilroy (screenplay), Dan Gilroy (screenplay), Tony Gilroy (story), Robert Ludlum (inspired by "The Bourne Series" created by)
1 win & 11 nominations.
The events in this movie take place around the same time as the events in The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). When a British reporter was writing an expose about Black Ops operations Treadstone and Black Briar, and the ones responsible for them are concerned. And when Jason Bourne, former Treadstone operative got the file on Treadstone and Black Briar and gave it to Pamela Landy who then passed it to the media. When the men behind Treadstone and Black Briar learn of this, they're concerned how this will affect other ops they have. They decide it's best to shut down all ops and make sure make everyone involved disappears. They try to take out Aaron Cross who is part of another op called Outcome, but he manages to survive. He then seeks out Dr. Marta Shearing who worked on him when he began. It seems part of the program is for all subjects to take medications but he has run out, which is why he seeks her. But someone tries to kill her. He saves her and she tells him, he should have stopped taking the medications long ago. They go to Manila so that she can help him. Later the men behind Outcome learn that Cross and Shearing are still alive. They try to get them.
The Campaign
(2012)
Chris Henchy (screenplay), Shawn Harwell (screenplay), Adam McKay (story), Chris Henchy (story), Shawn Harwell (story)
2 wins & 4 nominations.
When Cam Brady (D-NC), a four-term Congressman, becomes a liability, the Motch brothers (think Koch brothers) recruit Marty Huggins, the son of a Republican heavy hitter, to run against him and be their vehicle to establish factories in the district that will import cheap Chinese labor. Trouble is, Marty is a lightweight, so his makeover falls to consultant Tim Wattley. The race tightens as Cam constantly shoots himself in the foot, while the prospect of winning also changes Marty and his family's dynamics. Meanwhile, Cam plays dirty, and Marty cottons on to the Moches' grand plan. What options do the rich have to get their way?
The Dictator
(2012)
Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer
1 win & 1 nomination.
The Republic of Wadiya is ruled by an eccentric and oppressive leader named Hafez Aladeen. Aladeen is summoned to New York to a UN assembly to address concerns about his country's nuclear weapons program, but the trip goes awry.
The Iceman
(2012)
Morgan Land (screenplay), Ariel Vromen (screenplay), Anthony Bruno (book), Jim Thebaut (documentary "The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer")
2 wins.
In the 1960s, Richard Kuklinski is working as a porn film lab tech until his mob bosses persuade him to change his career into that of a contract killer. For years, Kuklinski gains a reputation for cold blooded professionalism even as he raises a family who are kept in the dark about his true career. Unfortunately, mob politics ultimately forces him to secretly work independently with the psychopathic Robert 'Mr. Freezy' Pronge. As much as Kuklinski tries to keep his lives separate, circumstances and his own weaknesses threaten a terrible collision as the consequences of his choices finally catch up to him.
The Place Beyond the Pines
(2012)
Derek Cianfrance (story), Ben Coccio (story), Derek Cianfrance (screenplay), Ben Coccio (screenplay), Darius Marder (screenplay)
3 wins & 18 nominations.
A motorcycle stunt rider turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.
The Raven
(2012)
Hannah Shakespeare, Ben Livingston
4 nominations.
When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's works, a young Baltimore detective joins forces with Poe to stop him from making his stories a reality.
The Sweeney
(2012)
Nick Love, John Hodge, Ian Kennedy Martin (source material)
3 nominations.
Jack Regan is a slobbish, old style cop whose unsubtle methods usually get results, to the annoyance of internal affairs officer Lewis, who would be even more annoyed if he knew that Regan was having an affair with his young wife, policewoman Nancy. After Regan disobeys orders and a shoot-out in central London following a bank hold-up ends in carnage, he is stripped of office and briefly imprisoned. However, thanks to the loyalty of his young protege George Carter and a little string pulling from his superior Frank Haskins, Regan is released to bring down the villains in a gun battle at Gravesend marina, ensuring the continued existence of his department - the Sweeney.
The Woman in Black
(2012)
Susan Hill (novel), Jane Goldman (screenplay)
5 wins & 12 nominations.
In London, lawyer Arthur Kipps still grieves the death of his beloved wife Stella on the delivery of their son Joseph four years ago. His employer gives him a last chance to keep his job, and he is assigned to travel to the remote village of Cryphin Gifford to examine the documentation of the Eel Marsh House that belonged to the recently deceased Mrs. Drablow. Arthur befriends Daily on the train and the man offers a ride to him to the Gifford Arms inn. Arthur has a cold reception and the owner of the inn tells that he did not receive the request of reservation and there is no available room. The next morning, Arthur meets solicitor Jerome who advises him to return to London. However, Arthur goes to the isolated manor and soon he finds that Eel Marsh House is haunted by the vengeful ghost of a woman dressed in black. He also learns that the woman lost her son drowned in the marsh and she seeks revenge, taking the children of the scared locals.
Total Recall
(2012)
Kurt Wimmer (screenplay), Mark Bomback (screenplay), Ronald Shusett (screen story by), Dan O'Bannon (screen story by), Jon Povill (screen story by)
1 win & 5 nominations.
A factory worker, Douglas Quaid, begins to suspect that he is a spy after visiting Rekall - a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led - goes wrong and he finds himself on the run.
Zero Dark Thirty
(2012)
Mark Boal
Won 1 Oscar. Another 83 wins & 157 nominations.
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.