2013 Oscar Nominations

The nominations have come in and for the most part, they are not what I expected at all. Though sure bets like Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook showed up and received all of their expected nominations, yet the films I believed would be looked over by Oscar certainly came back with full force while others were completely left out. Beasts of the Southern Wild is the big story here. It received nominations for best picture, best actress and best director. In my predictions I had it nowhere but expected it to maybe get some technical nods. With Quvenzhane Wallis becoming the youngest actress ever to get a best actress nomination she knocked out the expectation that the Academy would go with a safe bet like Helen Mirren. Also in the best actress category I was surprised to find Emmanuelle Riva for Amour. This marks also the oldest actress to ever be nominated in this category. Amour received a ton of love all around dashing the thought that Marion Cotillard would get a best actress nod. The other surprises include more Beasts and Amour news in the best director category as their respected directors, Benh Zeitlin and Michael Haneke, were nominated over favored bets like Ben Affleck, Tom Hooper, Quentin Tarantino and Kathryn Bigelow. For more thoughts on surprises and snubs hit the jump.

In the Best Director category I was also surprised to see David O. Russell get a nomination as I expected it to go to Tom Hooper but bet on Tarantino. The Academy are sure they made up for the Tarantino snub with a best original screenplay nod, yet the director snubs and nominations paint a clear picture for who is the front runner this year. I think before the nominations were announced and especially after all the other award nominations being announced recently we all would have chosen Lincoln as the sure favorite. The race is not so clear cut now though. I now see BOTSW taking all of the major categories it was nominated for in the vein of Slumdog Millionaire and The Artist. I hope this doesn't happen, I didn't much care for BOTSW but my other major issues with the nominations are the lack of love for Moonrise Kingdom and Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained. Moonrise Kingdom was one of my favorite films of the year and I honestly don't know that I've met anyone who hasn't liked it. It is surely Wes Anderson's best work to date and it deserved a best picture nomination, much moreso than Amour which also received a Best Foreign Language Film nomination. A little much? I think so.

I love Christoph Waltz, I really do, but if there was going to be a nomination for Django in the acting categories it truly deserved to go to DiCaprio. The leading man, for seemingly the first time in his career, stepped to the side and dug into a meaty supporting character that stole the entire second half of the film he was featured in. The film ended up with five nominations and one of them should have been for Calvin J. Candie.

Though I was unable to pinpoint the exact nominations in most categories those in the Best Supporting Actress and Actor categories were exactly as I expected and I am fine with those picks. I was a little let down to see the supporting actor category go with Alan Arkin rather than Matthew McConaughey as well. As I said in my predictions article, Arkin was all well and good here, but the role wasn't much. McConaughey deserved the recognition much more, but I knew it was a long shot that most of the Academy members even watched Magic Mike. Shame on them. There will certainly be more thoughts that develop as I become more aquainted with the list throughout the day, but these are my immediate complaints. Following is a full list of all nominees in all categories.

Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards

Best Picture

“Amour” Nominees to be determined
“Argo” Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers
“Django Unchained” Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers
“Les Misérables” Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers
“Life of Pi” Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers
“Lincoln” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
“Silver Linings Playbook” Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
“Zero Dark Thirty” Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers

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 in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis in “Lincoln”
Hugh Jackman in “Les Misérables”
Joaquin Phoenix in “The Master”
Denzel Washington in “Flight”

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin in “Argo”
Robert De Niro in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “The Master”
Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln”
Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained”

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain in “Zero Dark Thirty”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Emmanuelle Riva in “Amour”
Quvenzhané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
Naomi Watts in “The Impossible”

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams in “The Master”
Sally Field in “Lincoln”
Anne Hathaway in “Les Misérables”
Helen Hunt in “The Sessions”
Jacki Weaver in “Silver Linings Playbook”

Best Animated Feature
“Brave” Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
“Frankenweenie” Tim Burton
“ParaNorman” Sam Fell and Chris Butler
“The Pirates! Band of Misfits” Peter Lord
“Wreck-It Ralph” Rich Moore

Cinematography
“Anna Karenina” Seamus McGarvey
“Django Unchained” Robert Richardson
“Life of Pi” Claudio Miranda
“Lincoln” Janusz Kaminski
“Skyfall” Roger Deakins

Best Adapted Screenplay
“Argo” Screenplay by Chris Terrio
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
“Life of Pi” Screenplay by David Magee
“Lincoln” Screenplay by Tony Kushner
“Silver Linings Playbook” Screenplay 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

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 Documentary Feature
“5 Broken Cameras”
Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
“The Gatekeepers”
Nominees to be determined
“How to Survive a Plague”
Nominees to be determined
“The Invisible War”
Nominees to be determined
“Searching for Sugar Man”
Nominees to be determined

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

Film Editing
“Argo” William Goldenberg
“Life of Pi” Tim Squyres
“Lincoln” Michael Kahn
“Silver Linings Playbook” Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
“Zero Dark Thirty” Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Best Foreign Language Film
“Amour” Austria
“Kon-Tiki” Norway
“No” Chile
“A Royal Affair” Denmark
“War Witch” Canada

Makeup
“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 Original Score
“Anna Karenina” Dario Marianelli
“Argo” Alexandre Desplat
“Life of Pi” Mychael Danna
“Lincoln” John Williams
“Skyfall” Thomas Newman