Steven Spielberg's Lincoln led the pack with twelve nods this morning when the 85th Annual Academy Awards nominations were announced by Emma Stone and Seth McFarlane. Ang Lee's The Life of Pi came in a close second with eleven, while Silver Linings Playbook, Les Miserables, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Django Unchained also made impressive showings.
Many of the nominated films are either already available on Blu-ray or already available for pre-order, and many more are on the way. The nominations break down as follows:
Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Best Director
Amour, Michael Haneke
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi, Ang Lee
Lincoln, Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight
Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained, Robert Richardson
Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda
Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall, Roger Deakins
Best Editing
Argo, William Goldenberg
Life of Pi, Tim Squyres
Lincoln, Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassiday and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty, Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg
Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo, Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi, David Magee
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
Best Original Screenplay
Amour, Michael Haneke
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Flight, John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal
Best Foreign Language Film
Amour, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Norway
No, Chile
A Royal Affair, Denmark
War Witch, Canada
Best Animated Feature Film
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph
Best Documentary Feature
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man
Best Documentary Short Subject
Inocente, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point, Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine, Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart, Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
Redemption, Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill
Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran
Les Misérables, Paco Delgado
Lincoln, Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror, Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock, Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell
Best Production Design
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Best Original Score
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Lincoln, John Williams
Skyfall, Thomas Newman
Best Original Song
"Before My Time" from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph
"Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from Ted, music by Walter Murphy, lyric by Seth MacFarlane
"Pi's Lullaby" from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna, lyric by Bombay Jayashri
"Skyfall" from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
"Suddenly" from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil
Best Animated Short Film
Adam and Dog, Minkyu Lee
Fresh Guacamole, PES
Head over Heels, Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly
Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare, David Silverman
Paperman, John Kahrs
Best Live Action Short Film
Asad, Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
Buzkashi Boys, Sam French and Ariel Nasr
Curfew, Shawn Christensen
Death of a Shadow, Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
Affleck and Bigelow not getting nominated for Director is a pretty huge disgrace, other than that and Hawkes not being up for Actor, the nominees are fairly accurate. I get the feeling that if Spielberg wins it'll be one of those "sorry you didn't win for much better films than this, but here you go" type of things.
It's too bad that The Grey was released at the beginning of 2012. The movie was far better than 4 of those on the list for Best Picture and Liam Neeson gave an incredible and totally Oscar worthy performance. Of course the "Academy" wouldn't look at that since it's not released in the last 6 months. Sorry Liam, you rocked it. I noticed.
Having seen Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln, and Les Mis, I think it'll be an extremely tough race and am really looking forward to see the results. All the actors in those movies did a fantastic job.
What is so great about Silver Linings? I'm actually curious as I haven't seen it but from all the trailers and TV spots it looked really generic starring two okay actors. And I have never even heard of Amour, probably just not my type of film. Still need to see Django but right now I am rooting for Argo. Great and extremely tense film. I don't see it winning any of the big awards but I hope it at least takes home the Editing award. Disappointed to see Affleck not up for Director though. He has done three great movies in a row, I think he has proven himself.
Sad to see no love of Moonrise Kingdom and Safety Not Guaranteed. Sad, but not surprised.
Best picture race comes down to Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook for me, though I'd LOVE to see either Argo or Django play spoiler.
I'll say it: Lincoln is a great movie. It has the box office to prove the public agrees (close to $150 mil and will shoot up further with these nominations) and enough critical notices to definitely be considered critically acclaimed (on the website that compiles all the critics' top 10 lists it sits at #5). Not a popcorn flick, but a positive and powerful film nonetheless with a tour-de-force performance by one of the greatest actors who ever lived.
spawning - Amour is a foreign film. Not even certain it has come to arthous theaters in the states yet, but I look forward to being able to see it. It's been a long time since a foreign film has been showered with that much Oscar nomination love.
Agreed P.T. Anderson and Wes Anderson Got snubbed big time. I really dont like this 10 film nomination thing. Its really just 5 serious contenders, and 5 more public pleasing films to list just to make you come and watch the show and think they really have a chance to win
Network23 - It isn't 10 nominations guaranteed. Last year they switched it so it could be anywhere between 5 and 10 nominees. So far, it has been 9 both years. Each film must garner at least 5% of the vote to get a BP nomination. But I wish they WOULD go back to 5 flat. All 5-10 does is cloud the Oscar race.
DiCaprio still in line to be the only actor in history to lose a posthumous special award Oscar. Approaching Susan Lucci levels of discontent at this point. Affleck still, very obviously, being blamed for Gigli & Surviving Christmas. The male dominated geezer friendly crowd once agin forgets the woman. Only a huge shock if you have been in a coma for the last 20 years. Bigalow's Hurt Locker was a statement and not a trend it seems. Hawkes got utterly robbed. Sam Jackson gave the best performance in Django, imnsho, robbed. Ezra Miller & Perks Of Being A Wallflower adaption both robbed. Brit Marling for Sound Of My Voice, not even mentioned, robbed. Richard Gere for Arbirage sees a brief flirtation and no payoff, robbed. Zoe Kasdan was all over the place awesome in Ruby Sparks... Ignored altogether, robbed. Frank Langella in Robot & Frank the same, robbed. Only if Roger Deakins finally gets a statue will I forgive all the Skyfall snubs, all robbed. Then again my favorite supporting role of the year was also the product of one of least memorable overall efforts in drivel this year... Here is to you Tom Cruise, Stacey Jaxx rocked my face off. Your a putz of a human being but always seem to bring it when it matters. Les Grossman would be proud.
The good news is that this was such a great year for film overall the list could go on and on... I will take the blatant snubs a bit better considering.
When are they going to add the award for "Best Picture that Normal People Actually Enjoyed"? That way Skyfall, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, etc. could get recognized. Of course I think Skyfall was a great picture in it's own right and didn't get nearly enough nominations. I was sure Javier Bardem would get nominated for best supporting actor, he was excellent.
nathanp - MTV movie awards go way too far the other way and things like Twilight win. There should be awards for people who are "normal" but not teenagers.
There were other really good performances in "The Grey" too @biehn1. Frank Grillo and Dallas Roberts were both outstanding. They should've released that movie later in the year. January releases get no love. I can't remember the last winter/spring release other than "Erin Brockovich" (March?) to get attention. It's silly. Maybe they should've re-released it like they did with "End Of Watch" (although it didn't do that movie much good).
Too bad for Affleck. He deserved it. I think Bigelow might've gotten snubbed due to the recent controversy over "Zero Dark." Maybe there's a little "Hurt Locker" backlash too (i.e., you just won the award recently...and...people were pissed about that movie winning). Who knows?
Good post @boynotorious!
I still haven't seen a movie this year that blew me away. I've seen some very good ones. I don't think I've seen a performance that did either. I suppose DDL did in "Lincoln." Tired of hearing about "Beasts." It's sitting here to watch from Netflix, so I'll have to pop it in.
We need a seperate Acedemy Award series for "regular" movies outside of the Hollywood elite circle. You know a show where average Joe movies like Dark Knight, Avengers, Skyfall or Prometheus and so forth will have a chance. Where is it written in stone that 90+% of Oscars have to be related to Dramas and Documentaries?
Who cares ?! The Oscars are a joke just like the Grammys. 20 years from now nobody will even know most of these movies. True artists rarely receive awards. Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino, and Sergio Leone have never won an Oscar. Steven Spielberg and James Cameron have won , because they know the typical Generic Hollywood Formula the Oscars love. Really, Bradley Cooper nominated for Best Actor. What an insult to so many great performances this year by people that were not nominated !
@CaptainKronos: You seem to ignore the writing Oscars, which Welles won for Citizen Kane & Tarantino for Pulp Fiction. (Not to mention Rebecca, the Hitchcock-directed Best Picture winner -- though it almost certainly won only because of David O. Selznick.) And enough people remember the film that beat Citizen Kane for Best Picture (How Green Was My Valley) that it's hitting BD next week.
Tarantino, Welles & Kubrick HAVE all won competitive Oscars, just not for Best Director. Hitchcock received the Thalberg award too.
Funny how you criticize Spielberg and Cameron winning for formulaic Hollywood movies, while others criticize the Academy for nominating "artsy" films that nobody sees. The Academy is damned if they do and damned if they don't with these awards. People take it so damn personally when a movie they like isn't nominated. So what? It's just an industry awards show, a bigger, flashier, glitzier version of your teenage daughter getting Employee of the Month at Wendy's. True film lovers don't base their decision on what movies are good or not just because somebody involved with its creation was given a gold bauble for their efforts.
LINCOLN is this year's GANDHI. In thirty years it will be barely remembered.
Day-Lewis sounds like Walter Brennan in this movie.
Most of the movies nominated for Best Picture are vastly overrated.
I've seen all but AMOUR and BEASTS.
Of the seven that I have seen my favorite is SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.
The category with the most quality is Best Actor, although I would have liked Hawkes on the list instead of Jackman.
It's sad that the academy is rewarding middlebrow mediocrity. The films that truly push the envelope both thematically and stylistically are hardly recognized. For example Lincoln, albeit a good movie, is just that, nothing more, yet it garners 12 nominations while The Master only gets 3. Spielberg got that nomination on name alone. P.T. Anderson, Wes Anderson, Kathryn Bigelow, Tarantino, and Ben Affleck were far more deserving than Spielberg. They place way too much emphasis on period piece epics and dramas and not comedies and action movies. Bernie and Moonrise Kingdom were two of my favorites this year and they were virtually shut out. Nice to see Amour get recognition though.
My top 5 of the year:
Amour
Zero Dark Thirty
Argo
The Master
Moonrise Kingdom
It's disappointing that Zero Dark Thirty and Argo didn't receive as many nominations as they deserve. It's absolutely ridiculous that Lincoln has 12 nominations. It really isn't as phenomenal as it's made out to be. While the performances are fantastic and are award-worthy, the overall film itself and the direction aren't award-worthy in the slightest. It's a decent, but not amazing, movie. The Academy is biased towards period pieces and dramas, which is an absolute shame. Year after year, they reward the exact same type of movies. It's utterly predictable and unfair to those making much better films. They've lost all credibility in my eyes.
I really hope 'The Master' takes something home. I though for sure it would be a shoo-in for an acting award or two (or three), but looking at the nominees, nothing is sure.
Completely agree 28BlusLater! Between Lincoln and Les Miserables were the most overrated films of this year. I guess LM at least wasn't overrated critically. Not one 100 on Metacritic. ("Zero Dark Thirty" has twenty-three 100 votes!) I am seriously surprised they didn't make the "Best Director" category 10 spots. They could of fit Bigelow, Tarantino, Anderston, Paul Anderson, & Affleck. I seriously cannot believe the Director category this year.
As someone who has seen all but one of the movies (Beasts of the Southern Wild) nominated for best picture, Silver Linings Playbook was my front runner to win, but after just watching Les Miserables, I might have to change my mind. I can't remember the last time I was in a theater and there was applause throughout the film. The performances were absolutely incredible. Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, and Samantha Barks vocals were amazing. I had no idea the movie would be so gut wrenching and emotional. Nevertheless, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Les Mis wins best picture.
It might not surprise YOU if Les Mis wins Best Picture, but it would shock the hell out of me and a lot of other people. The reviews were mixed at best and, without a Best Director nomination, I'd say it's about a 1000-1 shot. Lincoln has as close a lock on Best Picture as can be.
The nominations aren't too bad. I wish Tarantino, Affleck and Bigelow got nominated for best director but they weren't the worst nominations in recent years though. My personal favorite film of 2012 was Silver Linings Playbook, I cared about everyone and everything in it and though it was quite predictable I enjoyed it more than any other film in 2012.
