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Viola Davis, Alexander Payne Celebrate Oscar Nods

Directors of ‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ and ‘A Separation’ also revel in their Academy Awards recognition. By Kara Warner Viola Davis in “The Help” Photo: DreamWorks As Academy Awards nomination day rolls on, so do the excited and deliriously happy reactions from the nominees . You can almost see and feel two-time nominee Viola Davis smiling via her statement. “It’s an honor to be nominated a second time. It is a personal accomplishment and triumph for women and women of color,” Davis said of her Best Actress nomination for “The Help.” “I’m so glad the film has been recognized. It was a labor of love from the moment it was conceived, and it is rewarding to see the impact it is having.” Davis was previously nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in 2008’s “Doubt.” What were the biggest shocks and snubs from this year’s Oscar nominations? Triple-nominee Alexander Payne, who’s up for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on “The Descendants,” took the time to shine the spotlight on his collaborators on the film, particularly his editor and fellow nominee, Kevin Tent. “There’s no denying that Oscar nominations for one’s film are exciting, if only for the joy they give to everyone who worked so hard on the film,” Payne said in a statement. “I’m particularly happy for the recognition of my longtime editor Kevin Tent. He really deserves it.” “I’m deeply honored that the Academy recognized ‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ as well as Max von Sydow,” director Stephen Daldry said of the film’s Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor nominations. “The entire team behind our film felt the enormous responsibility in taking on this project, and it is deeply humbling to have the Academy recognize it in this way.” Steven Spielberg also chimed in about nominations for a film he directed (“War Horse”) and one he produced (“The Help”). “I am thrilled with our multiple nominations for ‘The Help’ and ‘War Horse.’ It is the first time that I have experienced two Best Picture nominations in the same year,” Spielberg said in a statement. “One is a high honor. Two is humbling but very exciting. It is a tribute to all those who joined with Stacey Snider and our DreamWorks Studios team to develop and make these two films with stories that we passionately felt we had to make.” Multi-talented writer/director/producer Asghar Farhadi was also very happy to have scored his second Best Foreign Language Film nomination, along with a Best Original Screenplay nod, for the critically acclaimed film “A Separation.” “This is cheerful news for me and for the family of cinema in Iran, specially the nomination for the Best Original Screenplay,” Farhadi said in a statement. “It seems that although people speak different languages around the world … there is one common universal language which everyone understands: The Language of Cinema.” Fun fact about the film’s Best Original Screenplay nomination: It is the first screenplay written in Farsi to receive a writing nod. See the complete list of Oscar Nominations . Related Videos Oscars 2012: And The Nominees Are… Related Photos 2012 Oscar Nominees

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Viola Davis, Alexander Payne Celebrate Oscar Nods

Octavia Spencer Wasn’t Expecting An Oscar Nomination

‘It feels like I’m eating a bunch of cake right now,’ Spencer tells MTV News about her awards-season recognition for ‘The Help.’ By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer in “The Help” Photo: Dreamworks PARK CITY, Utah — Octavia Spencer needs no “Help” when it comes to feeling the love during this awards season. Having already won a Golden Globe for her turn as sassy maid Minny Jackson in “The Help” on top of numerous other nominations, Spencer can add another notch to her increasingly impressive belt Tuesday (January 24) — because, to the surprise of precisely no one, the 41-year-old actress has earned a well-deserved Best Supporting Actress nod at this year’s Academy Awards . “I am never presumptuous, because these sorts of things are beyond our control and I didn’t want to be set up for disappointment,” Spencer said in a statement reacting to the nomination. “A lot of us actually went to dinner last night and slept over and wanted to be together when we found out, so in case we didn’t get that call we wanted to be nice and hungover.” Earlier in the week, MTV News caught up with Spencer at the Sundance Film Festival , which she attended as part of the cast of the alcohol drama “Smashed.” When asked for her views on her probable nomination, the always humble actress revealed that she wasn’t even giving the possibility any thought. “I’ve been very good about not thinking about Oscar,” she told MTV’s Josh Horowitz. “I know I’m going to the BAFTAs, and I know I’m going to the SAGs. It would be nice to go to the Oscars. “That little movie was about something that resonated with people, and it became a phenomenon,” she said of her experience with “The Help,” adding that she hopes moviegoers will embrace her new movie “Smashed” with an equal amount of passion. “Hopefully I’ll continue to get more roles like this, in extremely wonderful and very relevant films. … It feels like I’m eating a bunch of cake right now!” The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance. Related Videos Sundance 2012: Interviews From Park City Oscars 2012: And The Nominees Are…

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Octavia Spencer Wasn’t Expecting An Oscar Nomination