Christopher Plummer nabbing a nomination for best actor for his star-turn in Beginners was expected as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday laid out the competition for the 84th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles next month.

And there was predictability in Canadian composer Howard Shore, a three-time Oscar winner, receiving yet another nomination in the best original music score competition, this time for Hugo.

But there was more tension for younger and less accomplished Canadian talent heading into Tuesday’s unveiling, especially for Quebec director Philippe Falardeau, whose latest film, Monsieur Lazhar, was booked into the Academy’s 2012 competition for best foreign language film.

“This is one of the most intense mornings in my life,” Falardeau said after news of his Oscar nomination broke and he searched for words to explain his elation during a media teleconference.

“I think I rejoice in the fact that a film, an intimate film like Monsieur Lazhar, can exist alongside major Hollywood productions in the biggest gala in the world,” he told journalists.

“I think it says a lot about the fact that we have to make the movies that we have inside of us, and not try to imitate any kind of recipe,” Falardeau added.

Also snagging a best foreign language film nomination was Poland’s Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness, a minority Canadian co-production from Eric Jordan and Paul Stephens of FilmWorks.

In Darkness portrays an effort to hide Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland, and was shot using a script by Torontonian David Shamoon.

“When you’re making a film set in the sewers, you’re bound to have some dark days. We had more than our share on this film, but the quality of the film and getting this nomination make it all worthwhile,” Jordan tells Playback Daily.

Jordan in a statement also paid tribute to Holland, a veteran director, for pulling off a feature that connected with Academy voters.

“Even with a Canadian writer and Canadian producers behind the project, it was clear to us this was a European film.  We needed the right European director and strong European co-producers to tell this story,” he said.

Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar, produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw of micro_scope Productions, had momentum coming into Tuesday.

The French language dramedy earlier won the best Canadian film prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, and awards in Whistler and Locarno.

Monsieur Lazhar is set for a theatrical release domestically from Feb. 27, with a U.S. release scheduled in April, or earlier if Oscar shines on a Quebec film about an immigrant teacher teaching in an elementary classroom disrupted by tragedy.

Quebec director Denis Villeneuve and producers micro_scope last year received an Oscar nomination in the best foreign language category for Incendies.

Elsewhere, in the best short animated film competition, two  National Film Board of Canada titles received nominations:  Dimanche/Sunday, directed by Patrick Dayon, and Wild Life, directed by veterans Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby.

Canadian Miranda de Pencier of Northwood Productions shared in the producer credits for Focus Features’ Beginners.

David Giammarco of Welland, Ontario was one of four people nominated in the sound mixing category at the Academy Awards for their work on Bennett Miller’s baseball tale Moneyball. This is Giammarco’s second Oscar nomination, his first for his sound mixing work on the 2007 film 3:10 to Yuma.

with files from Danielle Ng-See-Quan