3D animated feature Hugo leads the field with 11 nominations, including Best Picture, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Music (Original Score), Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Writing.

Among animated features, DreamWorks received nominations for both Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots, and Paramount garnered a nomination for the Western-themed Rango, but there were no nominations for Pixar’s Cars 2 or Paramount’s The Adventures of Tintin. Instead, Academy voters selected a French feature, A Cat in Paris, and the Spanish-and-English language movie, Chico & Rita.

In addition to Hugo, films contending for the Best Visual Effects race are Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Nominees for Best Animated Short are Dimanche (Sunday), The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, La Luna, A Morning Stroll and Wild Life.

Watch clips and trailers for all the animated shorts and features, in addition to more in-depth coverage of all the animated nominees, at the 2012 AWN Oscar Showcase.

 From AMPAS press release:

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Nominations for the 84th Academy Awards were announced today (Tuesday, January 24) by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and 2010 Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence.

Sherak and Lawrence, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her lead performance in Winter’s Bone, announced the nominees in 10 of the 24 Award categories at a 5:38 a.m. PT live news conference attended by more than 400 international media representatives. Lists of nominations in all categories were then distributed to the media in attendance and online via the official Academy Awards website, www.oscar.com.

Academy members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories – actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. In the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominations are selected by vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.

Nominations ballots were mailed to the 5,783 voting members in late December and were returned directly to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the international accounting firm, for tabulation.

Official screenings of all motion pictures with one or more nominations will begin for members this weekend at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Screenings also will be held at the Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood and in London, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.

All active and life members of the Academy are eligible to select the winners in all categories, although in five of them – Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject and Foreign Language Film – members can vote only if they have seen all of the nominated films in those categories.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

Nominees for the 84th Academy Awards

Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in A Better Life
George Clooney in The Descendants
Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt in Moneyball