Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay ... and the rest of the story

The Oscar nominations are up! For Best Screenplay Adaptation the nominees are: The Descendants (2011): Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash

Hugo (2011/II): John Logan

The Ides of March (2011): George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon

Moneyball (2011): Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011): Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan

That has got to be a tough vote. All five films were excellent! I'm a little surprised that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close didn't even get a nomination in this category. I saw the film last night with a group of  seven women. I'm the only one who had actually read the book and thought Frears did an amazing job of culling down this difficult material. BUT since half my friends didn't care for the film, calling it slow, and contrived, I guess it's not that hard to understand why but it did get a Best Picture nomination so I'm confused.

I think the main reason Ides of March was nominated is the George Clooney factor. An excellent film to be sure but best adapted screenplay out of the over two dozen qualified films based on books alone, not to mention those based on plays, as Ides of March was???? I loved Hugo, Tinker, and The Descendants but I'm betting on Moneyball. Sorkin won last year for The Social Network, and has an industry reputation for crisp writing from his West Wing years.

The Best Picture nominees are The Artist, The Descendants , Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close , The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse.  I've seen everything except Tree of Life and War Horse and I'm still leaning towards Hugo.

For the rest of the nominees IMDB has the full list here.
And The Hollywood Reporter has some "factoids" and analysis here. I'm still absorbing and processing.
What Say You?