Many critics have blamed the new Best Picture rules for the nomination . John Young at '' Entertainment Weekly '' says that when it comes to the new rules , " it 's better to be loved by a small and passionate group instead of liked by a much larger group " , and Jen Chaney at '' The Washington Post '' , believes that , " the Academy should 've just stuck to the 10 rule so that films like '' Dragon Tattoo '' or '' Harry Potter '' could 've joined the other worthy contenders , because if you ’re going to create a bunch of drama around the number of nominees and then come up one shy of what has become the typical total , that just feels like a letdown . " '' The Week '' writes that the new rules are a failure , as it lets " smaller , divisive movies that the Academy had hoped to weed out , like '' Tree of Life '' and '' Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close '' in , but prevents praised crowd pleasers like '' Bridesmaids '' and '' The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo '' from being nominated . " Opposingly , awards pundit Tom O'Neil defended the nomination and the film , stating : " This is a movie that we unwisely wrote off , but we did it because we believed the critics . This movie delivers . It is a '' superb '' motion picture . It is moving , it is relevant to our time , it is '' extremely '' well made . " At the 84th Academy Awards , '' Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close '' lost in both of its categories ( Best Picture to '' The Artist '' and Best Supporting Actor to Christopher Plummer for '' Beginners '' )
84th Academy Awards
84th Academy Awards
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (film)