Many people hoped that this would be the year the brilliant Andy Serkis would get nominated. He is a fine actor on his own (he played Jennifer Garner's boss in "13 Going on 30"), but it is his pioneering work as a performance capture artist that merits Oscar consideration.

His acting (that is the right term) this year as Caesar in "Rise of Planet of the Apes" was masterful. Technology took his movements and expressions and turned them into a chimp character who made us understand and even root for him over the humans, but it was his performance that made the character so electrifying and so moving.