Tintin snubbed but Weta gets Oscar nod (+photos)

Weta Digital's work on Planet of the Apes has been nominated for an Oscar. Photo / Supplied

The Wellywood involvement in the Steven Spielberg-Peter Jackson motion-capture 3D animation of The Adventures of Tintin has been snubbed in the Oscar nominations announced today, but the work of Weta Digital has been recognised for another film.

The company's Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R Christopher White and Daniel Barrett are all nominated in the visual effects category for The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a movie which used motion-capture to allow actors to depict the film's primates, and which featured Andy Serkis as the leading ape Caesar.

They face competition from the effects teams behind the final Harry Potter film, Hugo, Real Steel and Transformers 3.

American-born Weta Digital boss Letteri is already a four-time Oscar winner for Avatar, King Kong and two films in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Speilberg-directed Tintin received only one nomination - for best original score for Spielberg's regular composer John Williams.

And while it won the Golden Globe for animated film, it doesn't appear in the Oscar category which features a mix of arthouse animated films (A Cat in Paris, Chico & Rita) and Hollywood cartoon hits (Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Rango).

Bret McKenzie's song Man or Muppet is the only other New Zealand- related nomination at the Oscars in the Best Original Song category.

While the numbers of New Zealanders recognised by the Oscars this year is small, it's bigger than Australia's with the only nod going to Sydney born film editor Kirk Baxter for his work on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The winners will be revealed at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre on February 26 (Feb 27, NZ time).

* Read the full list of Academy Award nominations here.

- NZ Herald