'Harry Potter,' 'Hugo,' 'Breaking Bad' Lead Saturn Awards Nominations

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Paramount’s multiple Oscar winner Hugo led the pack for the nominations of the 38th annual Saturn Awards, the recognition given out by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.

And in what may be a first for Woody Allen, the quirky filmmaker saw his time-travel dramedy Midnight in Paris score a nomination for best fantasy film and best writing from the organization that honors achievement in so-called “genre” movies.

Genre movies encompass sci-fi, fantasy, comic book adaptations and horror films, all of which were once looked down upon as inferior forms of entertainment but now form the foundation of Hollywood fare. Still, most genre movies are still given second-class status by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences

Potter and Hugo received 10 nominations each followed by Super 8 with eight and Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The First Avenger with seven. The Adventures of Tintin and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol snagged six nominations while Rise of the Planet of the Apes garnered five.

In the television categories, AMC's Breaking Bad received six nominations while FX's American Horror Story scared up five. Fox's Fringe, Showtime's Dexter, TNT's Leverage, HBO's Game of Thrones, AMC's The Killing and Torchwood: Miracle Day garnered four each.

The nominees in for best science fiction included Universal’s The Adjustment Bureau, Marvel Studios/Paramount’s Captain America, Relativity’s Limitless, Fox’s Apes, Paramount’s Super 8 and Fox’s X-Men: First Class.

The best fantasy film category includes Harry Potter, Hugo, Relativity’s Immortals, Sony Pictures Classics’ Midnight In Paris, Disney’s The Muppets, and Marvel/Paramount’s Thor.

Best horror/thriller film was very much a grounded and gritty category, with Warners’ Contagion, Lionsgate’s The Devil’s Double, Sony’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Open Road’s The Grey and SPC’s Take Shelter joining the more traditional horror movie, The Thing, from Universal.

The films fighting for the best action/adventure film awards are Universal’s Fast Five, Lionsgate’s The Lincoln Lawyer, Mission: Impossible, Fox and Lucasfilm’s Red Tails, Warners' Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and Disney/DreamWorks’s War Horse.

For best director, the nominees included J.J. Abrams (Super 8), Brad Bird (Mission: Impossible), Martin Scorsese (Hugo), Steven Spielberg (Tintin), Rupert Wyatt (Apes), and David Yates (Harry Potter).

The Saturns are awarded in 19 film categories, nine TV categories and four in home entertainment. Also, Scorsese will receive the Academy’s George Pal Memorial Award “for his brilliant ode to the triumphant spirit of early cinema in Hugo.”

The 2012 Saturn Awards will be presented Wednesday, June 20, in Burbank.