Oscar nominations unveiled, "Lincoln" leads the pack

“Beasts of the Southern Wild”, “Silver Linings Playbook” also recognized

The 85th Oscar nominations were unveiled by Emma Stone and host Seth Macfarlane earlier today, releasing the 9 contenders for the coveted Best Picture: “Amour”, “Argo”, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, “Django Unchained”, “Les Miserables”, “Life of Pi”, “Lincoln”, “Silver Linings Playbook”, and “Zero Dark Thirty”. Most of these choiced had long been predicted by avid movie viewers and award-season scavengers, but there are a few surprises in the mix.

Impressively, “Silver Linings Playbook” managed to become the first movie in over 30 years to be nominated for every single acting category, in addition to nods for Best Picture and Best Director & Best Adapted Screenplay for director David O. Russell. Major surprises include directing snubs for Katheryn Bigelow for “Zero Dark Thirty”, Quentin Tarantino for “Django Unchained”, and Tom Hooper for “Les Miserables”, all oh whom received recognition in the Directors Guild awards nomination last week. Typically, nominations from the DGA lead to an automatic Oscar nomination. Such is not the case for this year’s Oscars.

Another movie that generated major awards discussion was “The Master”, the new film by director Paul Thomas Anderson, was shut out almost entirely, save for a few acting nominations on behalf of Joaquin Pheonix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. Other interesting tidbits to be found within the wealth of nominations are a historic Best Actress field, with both the oldest (Emmanuelle Riva at 85) and youngest (Quvenzhane Wallis at 9) nominees in the category.

BEST PICTURE
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Amour
Django Unchained
Argo

BEST DIRECTOR
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Michael Haneke, Amour
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST ACTRESS
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Denzel Washington, Flight
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Frankenweenie
Pirates: Band of Misfits
Wreck-It-Ralph
Paranorman
Brave

BEST FOREIGN FILM
Amour (Austria)
No, (Chile)
War Witch, (Canada)
A Royal Affair, (Denmark)
Kon Tiki, (Norway)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Amy Adams, The Master

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Robert de Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Alan Arkin, Argo
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Argo, written by Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild, written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi, written by David Magee
Lincoln, written by Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, written by David O. Russell

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Amour, written by Michael Haneke
Django Unchained, written by Quentin Tarantino
Flight, written by John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, written by Mark Boal

For a full list of the nominations, head over to the Oscars website.