I still feel sorry for Skinny Steve, but am happily surprised about Real Steel.

Iiiiinteresting.   It's definitely harder to predict bakeoff results now that it's five FX nominees chosen from ten possibles.  Picking three nominees from seven possibles was a lot easier. 

And as we learned here in the forum recently, preferential balloting (the same system the fx nominations use) yields interesting results.   In our case, we had an overwhelming favorite, while other films were just a few points apart.  But those few points made the difference between being in or out.

Unlike our vote, the Oscars never reveal the numbers.  So maybe Hugo was a favorite, or maybe it squeaked past Captain America or Ghost Protocol by one vote.  We'll never know.

Anyway, I'm glad that Real Steel made it in, that's the real surprise.  And my old colleague Greg Butler is now an Oscar nominee, and that's cool too.