As we inch closer to the 85th Academy Awards the nominations tallied by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were announced today. Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln received the most nominations, 12 of them in fact. The period piece is up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones), Best Supporting Actress (Sally Field), Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Adapted Screenplay (Tony Kushner), Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score, Production Design, and Sound Mixing. Life of Pi is close behind with 11 nods including Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), and Best Adapted Screenplay (David Magee). The remaining Best Picture contenders are Amour (5 nods total), Argo (7), Beasts of the Southern Wild (4), Django Unchained (5), Les Miserables (8), Silver Linings Playbook (8), and Zero Dark Thirty (5). Daniel Day-Lewis is up against Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables), Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), and Denzel Washington (Flight) for Best Actor. Clawing for Best Actress are Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), and Naomi Watts (The Impossible). The movies up for Best Animated Feature are Brave, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, The Pirates!, Band of Misfits, and Wreck-It Ralph.

Who got snubbed? The biggest shockers are those who were not nominated for Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Tom Hooper (Les Miserables), Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master), and Ben Affleck (Argo; he also wasn’t nominated for Best Actor). Big acting snubs include Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained) and John Hawkes (The Sessions). No technical nominations for Flight or Prometheus. Not a single nod for Rian Johnson’s Looper, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, and the Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas. And blockbuster The Avengers only managed to land a single nod for Visual Effects.

Jump after the break to see all the nominations. The 85th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Family Guy‘s Seth MacFarlane, airs live Sunday, February 24 on ABC. Watch some of MacFarlane’s latest promos below.
Continue reading 2013 Oscar nods are in! →

A few days back the Golden Globes celebrated the best in the TV and film, bestowing the highest of honors to movies like The Descendants, The Artist, and Hugo. Following the Globes is the Academy Awards and just last week the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees. Martin Scorsese’ss Hugo is the most celebrated film going into the Oscars leading the pack with 11 nods. The family friendly 3D flick is up for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing, Music, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Special Effects. A mouthful, I know. The Artist is close behind with 10 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius), Best Actor (Jean Dujardin), and Best Supporting Actress (Bérénice Bejo). The remaining Best Picture contenders are The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, and War Horse. Dujardin is pitted against Demián Bichir (A Better Life), George Clooney (The Descendants), Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and Brad Pitt (Moneyball) for Best Actor. And the following ladies are duking it out for Best Actress: Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Viola Davis (The Help), Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), and Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn). Major snubs include Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part II for Best Picture (it only landed the usual technical nods for Art Direction, Makeup, and Special Effects); Leonardo DiCaprio (J Edgar) and Michael Fassbender (Shame) for Best Actor; Andy Serkis (Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes) for Best Supporting Actor; The Adventures Of Tintin for Best Animated Film; and Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’ major contribution to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with their Original Score.

Hop after the break to see all the nominations. The 84th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, airs live Sunday, February 26 at 7PM on ABC. Continue reading 2012 Oscar nods are in! →