The Oscar nominees have been announced! Exciting times. More exciting than expected actually, everyone and their cat felt that this would be the most predictable round of nominations in years, but the Academy’s up and surprised us all.
Best Picture
Amour – Nominees to be determined
Argo – Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney
Beasts of the Southern Wild – Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald
Django Unchained – Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone
Les Misérables – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh
Life of Pi – Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark
Lincoln – Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy
Silver Linings Playbook – Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon
Zero Dark Thirty – Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison
The most surprising thing about this category is the number of nominees. Nine as opposed to the standard ten. You’d think the Academy would throw in Flight or The Master to round it off if nothing else.
Achievement in Directing
Amour – Michael Haneke
Beasts of the Southern Wild – Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi – Ang Lee
Lincoln – Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell
This is the most surprising category of the lot. While Beasts of The Southern Wild has been universally hailed, nobody expected Zeitlin to nab the nomination on his debut. David O. Russell’s inclusion will also likely cause a bit of chatter, but the main surprises come not from who got picked but in who got left out. No Ben Affleck? No Tom Hooper? No Kathryn Bigelow?
Actor in a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
Hugh Jackman – Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix – The Master
Denzel Washington – Flight
Bradley Cooper ahead of John Hawkes? Cue eyebrow raising.
Actress in a Leading Role
Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva – Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts – The Impossible
This category isn’t terribly surprising, but it is interesting that the Academy’s oldest ever Actress nominee (Riva, 85) is up against the youngest ever nominee (Wallis, 9). Also that Jessica Chastain, having come from practically nowhere, has had 2 nominations in as many years. Looks like Kate’s (Hepburn or Winslet, whichever you prefer) successor just stepped up to take the throne.
Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin – Argo
Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained
Again, no real surprises here, though people will debate Waltz over Di Caprio for Django Unchained.
Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams – The Master
Sally Field – Lincoln
Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook
This one was an exercise in fleshing out the category beyond Hunt and Hathaway.
Animated Feature
Brave – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
Frankenweenie – Tim Burton
ParaNorman – Sam Fell and Chris Butler
The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists! – Peter Lord
Wreck-It Ralph – Rich Moore
Pixar have two in this year’s competition. Why do other companies even bother?
Also, You’ll see The Pirates! labelled as Band of Misfits! elsewhere. That’s the US title. They had to change it because ‘Murricans don’t like science and they didn’t think they could sell it. ‘Murrica!
You can check out the rest of the nominees here.
Let us know what you think!