Tess Malone looks at the unappreciated heroes behind this year's Oscars nominations.

Last year’s best acting came from actors who can’t put on accents or fake tears, but they can woo audiences all the same. They accept a bucket of oats as a reward, not a golden statue, although they deserve one. They are animals and they are the best performers in Hollywood right now.

The most sincere actor in War Horse is the horse. He’s not forced to speak in a muddled French accent or coerced into crying in slow motion like the other actors. No, the most emotionally manipulative scene Steven Spielberg sets him against is a gorgeous sunset. This is because horses are mercurial creatures, more unpredictable than WWI shellfire. As Spielberg said in an interview, “There are times you just have to sit back and thank your lucky stars that the horses somehow were cognizant that something was required of them that none of us could tell them but they, intuitively, were able to give it to the moment in the scene.” Thankfully, Joey is meant to be obstinate. Now, that’s method acting.

However, there was some RADA-worthy acting. When Joey gets stuck in barbed wire, it’s one of the most heart wrenching scenes; one you know the Oscars would use for a montage. However, to insure the horse was safe, the barbed wire was actually made out of rubber. All those whinnies of pain were pure acting. It should be noted that Joey was played by fourteen different horses. Ensemble acting takes coordination and cooperation, and for animals that have trailers larger than the human actors, this is quite a feat.

However, War Horse can be summed up in one line often told to Albie, Joey’s sappy owner: “It’s just a horse, not a dog.” No matter how charmingly Joey can eat an apple, can he roll over and play dead? No. Joey’s all looks with the occasional attitude. He’s the Megan Fox of animal actors. Joey wouldn’t even be considered for an Oscar, if it weren’t for the poster animal of the movement, Uggie, The Artist’s scene stealing pooch. Uggie comes from humble origins. Two owners rejected him for being ‘too wild’ (he’s a Jack Russell Terrier, what else did they expect?). He was about to be sent off to the pound when animal trainer, Omar Van Muller found him.

Von Muller described him as ‘crazy’, but he wasn’t afraid of anything. “He gets rewards, like sausages, to encourage him to perform, but that is only a part of it,” Von Muller told The Daily Telegraph, but was quick to emphasise, “He works hard.” This Dickensian story quickly developed into him acting next to Robert Pattinson in Water for Elephants. It wasn’t until The Artist that his bite matched his bark. Ironically, a silent film let him really shine because Von Muller could call out commands during takes. Uggie had a few stunt doubles (Dash and Dude), but like Tom Cruise, he did most of his own stunts. Uggie’s dog tricks put most other canines to shame. He can play dead from a gunshot wound and mimic Jean Dujardin’s every move. But Uggie does more than just pratfalls in the film, he saves the protagonist’s life. As one of the silent film panels says in The Artist, “That man owes his life to this dog.” Likewise, Hollywood owes its appeal to Uggie, who saved The Artist from being a pretentious inside joke.

He deserves an award. However, after the first Oscars in 1929, when Rin Tin Tin got more best actor votes than a human, the Academy banned dogs from winning. Yet Movieline editor, S.T. VanAirsdale started the Facebook campaign after noting to The NY Post how Uggie, “handily outperforms Leo in J. Edgar, though might not measure up to Clooney’s work in The Descendants.” Nonetheless, even the BAFTAs issued the obvious statement Uggie “is not a human” and refused to nominate him. However, Cannes’ Palm Dog Award and the American Humane Society’s Pawscar gave Uggie the accolades he deserved.

Like the infallible Ryan Gosling, animals are Hollywood’s saving grace in a world of hackneyed plots and disingenuous performances. All it takes is a strategically placed tail wagging or emotional neigh to win over audiences. So let’s stop nominating Meryl Streep for everything and give it to a performer who really moved us, even if a bit of slobber came with it.