85th Academy Awards Nominations

As predicted and expected Lincoln leads the pack with 12 nominations, two short of the record holder Titanic; Life of Pi follows closely with 11, then Silver Linings Playbook with 8 and Les Misérables and Argo with 7 each. Most nominations were expected BUT there are HUGE surprises.

The biggest surprise is the absence of critics most honored directors: Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck but as you can imagine just love that Michael Haneke got a nomination! Not easy for me to understand why Benh Zeitlin can be considered above Bigelow, Affleck and many more, but well is the only indie that got in. So, the Academy softened and nominated Spielberg, that’s news. Notable is that the five directors nominated have also their pictures nominated

Nine films got into the Best Picture category and there are no blockbusters nominated and as expected plus predicted, The Master did not got into the list. For me there are no surprises in this category.

The BEST surprise is in the Foreign Language category as France did NOT got a nomination! Of course now my interest in category is back and just hope Amour wins as honestly the other four nominees are not even close to Amour’s quality. But I’m very glad that NO and Rebelle got nominated.

Other surprises come from supporting actress category as with Jacki Weaver nod is the first time in 31 years that a film scored ALL four acting categories, putting Silver Linings Playbook in a league with Sunset Boulevard and Streetcar Named Desire.  Notable is that Silver Linings Playbook is labelled as a comedy, which probably makes movie the most honored comedy in many years -will confirm-.

The most negative surprise is Marion Cotillard not being nominated as in my opinion the young girl in Beasts of the Southern Wild is good but not as good as Cotillard in Rust and Bone; suspected that Naomi Watts could be nominated because the high buzz, but definitively can’t agree as The Impossible best performance is the older kid, Tom Holland, who absolutely steals the movie. Very glad Emmanuelle Riva got a nod as her performance quality is well-above standards. Won’t be easy to guess who could win in this category.

Another surprise is Joaquin Phoenix getting a nomination, which indeed I’m pleased with; but that meant John Hawkes out of the race and he was great in The Sessions. No surprises in supporting actor for me.

Feature Films

Best Picture
Amour (Love), Michael Haneke
Argo, Ben Affleck
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Les Misérables, Tom Hooper
Life of Pi, Ang Lee
Lincoln, Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow

Animated Feature Film
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

Foreign Language
Amour (Love), Michael Haneke, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Norway
NO, Pablo Larraín, Chile
En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair), Nikolaj Arcel, Denmark
Rebelle (War Witch), Kim Nguyen, Canada

Directing
Michael Haneke for Amour
Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Ang Lee for Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Actress in a Leading Role
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

Actress in a Supporting Role
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

Actor in a Leading Role
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

Actor in a Supporting Role
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

Cinematography
Seamus McGarvey for Anna Karenina
Robert Richardson for Django Unchained
Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi
Janusz Kamiski for Lincoln
Roger Deakins for Skyfall

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

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

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

Production Design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer for Anna Karenina
Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent and Simon Bright for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Eve Stewart and Anna Lynch-Robinson for Les Misérables
David Gropman and Anna Pinnock for Life of Pi
Rick Carter and Jim Erickson for Lincoln

Visual Effects
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi
Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick for Marvel’s The Avengers
Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill for Prometheus
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson for Snow White and the Huntsman

Sound Editing
Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn for Argo
Wylie Stateman for Django Unchained
Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton for Life of Pi
Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers for Skyfall
Paul N.J. Ottosson for Zero Dark Thirty

Sound Mixing
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia for Argo
Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes for Les Misérables
Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin for Life of Pi
Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkin for Lincoln
Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson for Skyfall

Costume Design
Jaqueline Durran for Anna Karenina
Paco Delgado for Les Misérables
Joanna Johnston for Lincoln
Eiko Ishioka for Mirror Mirror
Colleen Atwood for Snow White and the Huntsman

Makeup and Hairstyling
Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel for Hitchcock
Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Misérables

Music – Original Score
Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina
Alexandre Desplat for Argo
Mychael Danna for Life of Pi
John Williams for Lincoln
Thomas Newman for Skyfall

Music – Original Song
"Before My Time" from Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
"Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from Ted Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
"Pi's Lullaby" from Life of Pi Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
"Skyfall" from Skyfall Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
"Suddenly" from Les Misérables Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Documentary
5 Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers, Dror Moreh
How to Survive a Plague, David France
The Invisible War, Kirby Dick
Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul

Short Films

Live Action
Asad, Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
Buzkashi Boys, Sam French and Ariel Nasr
Curfew, Shawn Christensen
Dood van een Schaduw (Death of a Shadow), Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
Henry, Yan England

Animated
Adam and Dog, Minkyu Lee
Fresh Guacamole, PES
Head over Heels, Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly
Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare, David Silverman
Paperman, John Kahrs

Documentary
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
Redemption, Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill

Today we got a preview of the humor the awards ceremony will have and well, definitively is NOT my kind of humor, but imagine that will please many, especially Americans and maybe will rise ratings for ABC network in the younger demo.

Later will do an in-depth analysis with more stats and info; check official press release here.