The 2012 Academy Award® nominations were announced Tuesday, sending the Internet buzzing with discussion about this year’s surprises and snubs. Martin Scorsese’s 3D family-friendly Hugo earned 11 nominations, while the black-and-white feature The Artist, which pays tribute to silent filmmaking, trailed with 10 nominations.

Although categories like Best Picture, and Actor/Actress in a Leading Role get all of the attention, we appreciate that good art and design comes in all forms, which is why we admire even the lesser-known, (albeit important) categories.

Costume Design

Honoring the luminous category of Costume Design, FIDM Museum & Galleries hosts an annual exhibition featuring fashion from the silver screen, including those honored with Academy Award® nominations.

This year, the FIDM Museum & Galleries is proud to present the 20th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition. Celebrating the art and industry of costume designers, this exhibition will present 100 costumes from 20 films released in 2011, including from all five 2012 Academy Award® Best Costume nominees Anonymous, The Artist, Hugo, Jane Eyre, and W.E.

A gown from Alice in Wonderland, the 2011 Academy Award® winner for Best Costume, will greet visitors as they enter the galleries.

The exhibition will also showcase classic film costumes from the FIDM Museum collection and the Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles, Historic Hollywood Collection. Some of these same costumes were featured during the first Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition in 1993.

Visit fidmmuseum.org for more information about this free exhibition, from February 14 through April 28.

Sound Design

As self-proclaimed super fans of sound design, we also took note of the categories Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. With overlapping nominations in both categories, the films The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and War Horse caught our attention.

We recently published a short video from SoundWorks Collection featuring the sound professionals behind The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, including Ren Klyce who is mentioned in both categories, so we were excited to see his name on the 2012 Academy Award® nomination list (watch the video below and read more here).

SoundWorks Collection: The Sound and Music of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

On our Wish-List: Movie Poster Design and Movie Trailer Editing

Although movie posters and movie trailers are recognized in awards ceremonies of their own like the Key Art Awards and the Golden Trailer awards, we have to recognize some noteworthy creative firms for fun.

Entertainment design firm BLT & Associates caught our attention, designing four of the nine Best Picture nominees (see below). The Weinstein Company is the firm behind the posters for The Artist, as well as The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep, and My Week with Marilyn with Michelle Williams, both nominated for Actress in a Leading Role. Also note-worthy is Ignition Print‘s key art for The Help, which they developed into a digital motion graphics poster as well.

Finally, we just can’t stop watching the trailer for The Descendants, with Actor in a Leading Role nominee George Clooney, which captures a series of emotions from humor to angst. Acme Trailer Company is the creative firm behind this trailer, which captures the spirit of the film through sharp editing and concise sound design (check out the mix of island music and sound of Clooney’s flip flops at the 1:23 mark).

“The Descendants” Trailer, by Acme Trailer Co.

Already infamous for its never-ending ceremony, chances are our wish-list categories won’t be added to the Academy Awards® any time soon, but one can dream.

Below, check out the movie posters for the Academy Award® Best Picture nominees: Moneyball, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Hugo, and War Horse posters designed by BLT & Associates, The Help poster designed by Ignition Print, Tree of Life poster designed by Mark Carroll, The Artist poster designed by The Weinstein Company, The Descendants poster designed by Mojo, and Midnight in Paris poster designed by Cardinal Communications USA.