Will these Academy Award long shots make the cut?

The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards will be announced a little after 8:30 a.m. EST tomorrow morning, Jan. 24. I’ll probably tune in at 8 a.m. to ABC, which will broadcast the big show on Feb. 26, so feel free to watch and tweet along with me. In a year when a black-and-white, silent French film is someone considered the Best Picture front-runner, I’m not sure what qualifies as a “dark horse” any more, but I’ll be rooting for some of the following unlikely nominees:

Best Supporting Actor - Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Nine years ago, Serkis earned enormous praise for his motion-capture performance as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and set off a debate over whether he was qualified for an Oscar nomination. History repeats with Serkis’ turn as Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot, which presents a remarkable, affecting simulation of a chimpanzee that assumes human intelligence. Caesar emerged as arguably the most original and memorable role from the mainstream movies of 2011, and clearly Serkis throws his heart into the role. Of course, the film’s animators can’t be discounted in the creation of the character: if Caesar looked like Donkey Kong, Serkis’ passions would be for naught. Maybe the Oscars needs a new category for this kind of thing: