THE 2013 OSCAR NOMINATIONS ARE HERE!

If you were up early this morning (early for us West Coasters at least) then you already know the news – the nominations for the 2013 Academy Awards have been announced. What follows is the usual celebration mixed with shock and awe over who did or didn’t make the cut. Either way, we will all find out who wins on February 24th when Seth Macfarlane hosts the yearly event…

Now, on to your nominees!

Lincoln led the way with 12 nominations, Life of Pi was next with 11, followed by Les Misérables and Silver Linings Playbook, with 8 each, and Argo with 7.

BEST PICTURE:

Amour

Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

(There aren’t any real surprises except maybe the inclusion of Beasts of the Southern Wild. The rest have all been named on BEST OF lists since they came out. Lincoln is the frontrunner because of the most noms and it’s gonna be hard for either Argo or Zero Dark Thirty to win because neither director got a nomination – more on that in a second).

BEST DIRECTOR

Michael Haneke – Amour

Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Ang Lee – Life of Pi

Steven Spielberg – Lincoln

David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook

(Very shocked not to see Bigelow or Affleck here and to a lesser extent, Tarantino. Haneke and Zeitlin are surprise noms because their films are less known, certainly, and their names are not nearly on par with the A-List of Snubs, but for those who saw those movies – I am not one of them – maybe they are both very well deserved. Bigelow is probably the biggest snub though, with Affleck right behind.)

BEST ACTOR:

Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook

Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln

Hugh Jackman -Les Miserables

Joaquin Phoenix – The Master

Denzel Washington – Flight

(Heavy hitters here but if you’re taking the field over DDL then I’ll happily take that bet. It’s been his award to lose since that first picture of him in Lincoln garb came out!)

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

(J-Law was great in Silver Linings and since it’s the only one that I saw… I’ll be pulling for her. I’m a bit surprised to see Naomi Watts up there. The Impossible hasn’t really taken off like I’d thought.)

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

(I love the names on this list although I’d have added in Dicaprio in place of De Niro, but for me, it’s Waltz all the way. I feel like it’s a two-man race though between Tommy Lee Jones and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Jones wins by an ear, I’ll say…)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sally Field – Lincoln

Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables

Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook

Helen Hunt – The Sessions

Amy Adams – The Master

(Very surprised at Weaver’s inclusion – I didn’t think her role really was that spectacular. But congrats to her! Also, can we also changed Anne Hathaway’s nomination from Les Mis to The Dark Knight Rises just for fun?)

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Frankenweenie
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph
ParaNorman
Brave

(I have no real opinion here, as I only saw Ralph out of these and that wasn’t amazing or anything. I also know Brave wasn’t universally lauded so it’s not a shoo-in for the win.)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Flight, John Gatins
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Amour, Michael Haneke
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola

(Would’ve liked to have seen Looper get in here but this might be where QT gets his win because of his Direction snub.)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

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

(This is probably Lincoln just because it’ll be on the war path to winning everything. Maybe. Who knows.)

Those are the main awards – all the technical stuff is the usual stuff, but I will mention a couple other things, just for kicks:

- The Dark Knight Rises was completely shut out. Terrible. I understand that it’s not a Best Picture film. Fine. But Visual Effects? Sound Editing? Score? Snow White and the Are You Kidding Me About This Huntsman got two nominations… Nolan and Co. deserved more than that!

- Adele got a nomination for the Skyfall song and the film also picked up a Cinematography nod. Well deserved!

Well that about wraps it u!

Let us know your thoughts on the nominations below!