Leading online betting firm, Sky Bet, has unveiled its full list of Oscars betting markets following the announcement of the 84th Academy Awards nominations on Tuesday, January 24.

Black and white silent movie, ‘The Artist’, which last week picked up the Producers Guild Award and also won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy/Musical, is Sky Bet’s clear favorite to win Best Picture at 2/7, with the odds having been cut from a pre-Christmas 2/1.

The French tribute to the silent movie has ten Oscar bids, although it was beaten by Scorsese’s 3D charmer ‘Hugo’, which received 11 nods. This augurs well for its Best Picture hopes as the most nominated film has taken the top prize 15 times in the last 20 years, and Sky Bet makes ‘Hugo’ a 10/1 shot behind Golden Globe Best Drama champion, ‘The Descendants’ (4/1).

‘The Artist’ dominates several other categories with its helmsman, Michel Hazanavicius, as an odds-on favorite (8/13) to win Best Director and its leading man, Jean Dujardin, second in the Best Actor betting at 2/1. George Clooney is a hot favorite at 2/5 to take home the lead actor gong for his performance in the comedy-drama, ‘The Descendants’. Gary Oldman picked up his first ever Oscar nomination for ‘Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy’ and is quoted at 33/1.

Double Oscar winner and 17-time nominee, Meryl Streep, is the short-priced favorite at 1/2 to scoop a third gong for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady’. Viola Davis is her nearest rival for Best Actress at 9/4, with ‘My Week with Marilyn’ star, Michelle Williams, another threat at 11/4.

Sky Bet’s Oscars betting expert, Helen Jacob, said, “The Artist seems way ahead of its rivals in the race to win the top Oscar. ”Other categories, however, are not so clean-cut, with the battle for best actress between Meryl Streep and Viola Davis looking particularly close.”

For Best Supporting Actor, Christopher Plummer (‘Beginners’) is at 1/12, and Octavia Spencer is at 1/8 (‘The Help’) and looks to have the Best Supporting Actress category sewn up.

Sky Bet is also offering a host of novelty special bets on the Oscars ceremony itself, which takes place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, February 26.

Veteran actress, Meryl Streep, accidentally swore onstage at the Globes and Sky Bet goes 7/2 that the Oscars best actress winner turns the air blue again in her acceptance speech. It is even money that the best actress cries during her speech, and 10/1 that any recipient’s address consists of a single ‘Thank you!’

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 84th Academy Awards. One hundred twenty-four pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

• “Battle for Brooklyn” (RUMER Inc.)
• “Bill Cunningham New York” (First Thought Films)
• “Buck” (Cedar Creek Productions)
• “Hell and Back Again” (Roast Beef Productions Limited)
• “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” (Marshall Curry Productions, LLC)
• “Jane’s Journey” (NEOS Film GmbH & Co. KG)
• “The Loving Story” (Augusta Films)
• “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” (@radical.media)
• “Pina” (Neue Road Movies GmbH)
• “Project Nim” (Red Box Films)
• “Semper Fi: Always Faithful” (Tied to the Tracks Films, Inc.)
• “Sing Your Song” (S2BN Belafonte Productions, LLC)
• “Undefeated” (Spitfire Pictures)
• “Under Fire: Journalists in Combat” (JUF Pictures, Inc.)
• “We Were Here” (Weissman Projects, LLC)

The Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.

The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The Academy could also announce that the Academy Award-winning production designer John Myhre will design the 84th Academy Awards. This will be the first time Myhre has served as production designer for the Oscars.

“John is a prolific production designer, who has created some of the most intriguing sets that we’ve ever seen,” said Brian Grazer and Don Mischer. “His cinematic perspective will be a great contribution to our team dynamic and the show itself.”

Myhre won Academy Awards in the Art Direction category in 2002 for Chicago and in 2005 for Memoirs of a Geisha. He has three additional Oscar nominations for his work on Elizabeth (1998), Dreamgirls (2006) and Nine (2009). Myhre’s other production design credits include Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Wanted, Ali and X-Men.

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.

The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

DFree / Shutterstock.com

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