85th Academy Awards Nominations

Well the results are in! Host Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone announced the nominees for the 85th Academy Awards this morning. There certainly were a couple big shockers, and big name snubs, but otherwise everything went more or less as predicted. So how did everything go down, who are the nominees and who should have been nominated? Read on!

Best Picture- Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Lincoln, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty

Probably the least surprising category. 9 nominees as predicted, Moonrise Kingdom and The Master were left out and Amour is in.

Director- Michael Haneke ‘Amour’, Ang Lee ‘Life of Pi’, David O Russell ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, Steven Spielberg ‘Lincoln’, Benh Zeitlin ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’

Wow. So, obviously the biggest and most shocking snubs came here. Kathryn Bigelow 'Zero Dark Thirty' and Ben Affleck 'Argo', were probably at the top of everyone's prediction list, especially after being nominated for the Director's Guild of America Award and the oversight here was a total blind side. You could hear the buzz among the press present at the announcement after the nominees were called. Tom Hooper 'Les Miserables', who is also nominated for the DGA Award, was a much less shocking omission.

Actor in a Leading Role- Bradley Cooper ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, Daniel Day-Lewis ‘Lincoln’, Hugh Jackman ‘Les Miserables’, Joaquin Phoenix ‘The Master’, Denzel Washington ‘Flight’

Another big surprise omission here for John Hawkes 'The Sessions', otherwise totally predictable nominees.

Actress in a Leading Role- Jessica Chastain ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, Jennifer Lawence ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, Emmanuelle Riva ‘Amour’, Quvenzhane Wallis ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’, Naomi Watts ‘The Impossible’

Emmanuelle Riva 'Amour' beat out strong contenders Helen Mirren 'Hitchcock', Marion Cotillard 'Rust and Bone' and Rachel Weisz 'The Deep Blue Sea', but not a big shocker. What was a shocker however was that Watts made it in over Cotillard, or even Mirren. The pairing of Wallis (9 years old) and Riva (who turns 86 the night of the Oscars), also marks the nomination of both the youngest and oldest Best Actress nominees ever.

Actor in a Supporting Role- Alan Arkin ‘Argo’, Robert De Niro ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, Tommy Lee Jones ‘Lincoln’, Phillip Seymour Hoffman ‘The Master’, Christoph Waltz ‘Django Unchained’

So it turns out that Christoph Waltz beat out his Django Unchained co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, who along with Javier Bardem 'Skyfall' didn't make the cut.

Actress in a Supporting Role- Amy Adams ‘The Master’, Sally Field ‘Lincoln’, Anne Hathaway ‘Les Miserables’, Helen Hunt ‘The Sessions’, Jacki Weaver ‘Silver Linings Playbook’

Now here was another surprise that definitely has people talking. Not that Nicole Kidman 'The Paperboy' was a sure thing, but the inclusion of Jacki Weaver seems to have come out of nowhere and has everyone stunned. I at least expected Maggie Smith 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' or Judi Dench 'Skyfall' to get in at Kidman's expense.

Original Screenplay- Amour, Django Unchained, Flight, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty

Well Looper and Seven Psychopaths didn't quite make the cut and both will miss out on the Oscars, but we saw that coming, right?

Adapted Screenplay- Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook

Not much of surprise here. Beasts of the Southern Wild did manage to edge out The Perks of Being a Wallflower though (yet another great film this year to go home Oscar-less).

Animated Feature Film- Brave, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, The Pirates!, Wreck-It Ralph

Not only did Rise of the Guardians not make it in, but it lost it's spot to The Pirates! I don't know what else to say. A strange year in Animated Film, almost supernatural even.

Foreign Language Film- Amour (Austria), A Royal Affair (Denmark), Kon-Tiki (Norway), No (Chile), War Witch (Canada)

Yes, Canada made the cut! I find that almost as exciting as the obvious exclusion of The Intouchables over Kon-Tiki. Who knows maybe now with Amour up for Best Picture (and with a good chance at winning), A Royal Affair might take the win? It would be a surprise, but this is clearly a year of big surprises at the Oscars.

Feature Documentary- 5 Broken Cameras, The Gatekeepers, How to Survive a Plague, The Invisible War, Searching for Sugar Man

Bully didn't make it in. Any other year I'd complain, but it's a good year for documentaries, or so I hear.

Short Subject Documentary- Inocente, Kings Point, Mondays at Racine, Open Heart, Redemption

No big surprises here really.

Animated Short Film- Adam and Dog, Fresh Guacamole, Head over Heels, Maggie Simpson: The Longest Daycare, Paperman

Or here.

Live Action Short Film- Asad, Buzkashi Boys, Curfew, Death of a Shadow, Henry

Or here either.

Cinematography- Anna Karenina, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

The Master and Zero Dark Thirty didn't quite make the cut, in what is shaping up to be a disappointing Oscar year for both films so far. Hopefully they will have better luck on Oscar night.

Film Editing- Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty

Silver Linings Playbook is doing better than I expected, including nominees in all 4 acting categories. Could this restore hopes of an Oscar win over Lincoln? (Probably not, but we'll see.)

Production Design- Anna Karenina, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln

First of all I'd like to point out that I predicted all 5 of these nominees. Actually, I'm just going to leave this at bragging. Now if only my other predictions had such luck...

Costume Design- Anna Karenina, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman

Okay, Snow White is the 'fairest in all the land', she owns a couple nice dresses- we get it. If only Mirror Mirror or Snow White and the Huntsman could be as fair. Maybe the Academy has gotten used to Richard Taylor's fantastic costume design (he was nominated for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and won for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King), because they are certainly taking it for granted in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. A traditionally unpredictable category it's true, but don't even get me started on the series of snubs for Django Unchained. 

Makeup and Hairstyling- Hitchcock, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Miserables

Yes, folks you read correctly Lincoln was not nominated for everything. At the rate it was going I thought it would take Foreign Film too. Guess I'll have to rearrange my predictions for a win here now.

Sound Editing- Argo, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Skyfall, Zero Dark Thirty

The one category that favours summer blockbusters and neither The Avengers nor The Dark Knight Rises are nominated. Well, at least Django Unchained got a nomination.

Sound Mixing- Argo, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

I have to admit, while I didn't predict it, Lincoln's nomination here actually does make a lot of sense. Argo also surprised me here, although earlier in the year I had said it would get nominated. I think this is definitely one category I need to devote more attention to. That being said, I still don't understand why Zero Dark Thirty isn't on this list.

Original Score- Anna Karenina, Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

Even I was surprised by how accurate my predictions here were, Beasts of the Southern Wild while beautifully composed and deserving of a nomination was not a surprising snub. It's a shame Hans Zimmer wasn't nominated for The Dark Knight Rises though. 

Original Song- Before My Time ‘Chasing Ice’, Everybody Needs a Best Friend ‘Ted’, Pi’s Lullaby ‘Life of Pi’, Skyfall ‘Skyfall‘, Suddenly ‘Les Miserables’

Best Original Song has always been an unusual category, full of surprise nominations but I didn't see this coming. While Before My Time is probably the only big surprise here, what is even more surprising is that Brave did not see a nomination for Learn Me Right or Touch the Sky.

Visual Effects- The Avengers, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Life of Pi, Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman

Again The Dark Knight Rises was not nominated and again we Snow White and the Huntsman in place of a better movie. What I'm more interested in (aside from how Prince Charming is cooler than the 90-degree turn the Batpod does) is how Cloud Atlas didn't make the cut. I figured this would be it's only nomination, but I was sure it would get nominated.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", I couldn't find a better way to express my feelings about these nominations. Now if I can only figure out who will win...

Eat your heart out Snow White (haha, irony).