It looks like it’s Spielberg’s race to lose at this year’s Academy Awards, as his “Lincoln” pulled in 12 nominations — the most of any film nominated this year — including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director and Best Picture. If Oscar history is any indication, odds are the Best Director and Best Picture winners will align, so despite nine films being nominated this year, the real race is between “Amour,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” and our money is on Spielberg’s historical drama.
“I don’t know why we don’t wait until noon to do this,” host Seth MacFarlane joked before inviting actress Emma Stone to join him to announce the nominees. “The only people up right now are either flying or having surgery.”
The nominations of course signal shifting into the most intense section of Awards Season, something not all the nominees are necessarily thrilled about. “It’s obviously exciting, it’s like getting a promotion at work,” Best Supporting Actress nominee Jennifer Lawrence told Metro on the eve of the Oscar nominations, adding that her parents were staying with her and planned to have her up at 4:30 a.m. “I just get anxiety over parties, and that’s what that means, essentially, to me, [being] surrounded by lots of people, and it just gives me anxiety just to think about it.”
BIGGEST WINNERS
“Lincoln” is the clear winner nomination-wise, with Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi” close behind at 11 nods, while “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” which nabbed four high-profile nominations, and “Amour,” with five, had their profiles raised considerably. And the Academy’s love for David O. Russell is clear. Much like with his last film, “the Fighter,” his “Silver Linings Playbook” earned spots for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and every single acting category.
BIGGEST LOSERS
Kathryn Bigelow’s presumed Oscar juggernaut “Zero Dark Thirty” earned only five nods, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. Mark Boal and Jessica Chastain are still front-runners for writing and acting, but that’s about it. And a lack of surprises in the Best Supporting Actor category means our hopes of Javier Bardem being the first Bond villain nominated for an Oscar (for “Skyfall”) have been dashed. Leonardo DiCaprio was also snubbed, with his “Django Unchained” co-star Christoph Waltz edging him out. In the Best Foreign Language race, the exclusion of French mega-hit “the Intouchables” means it’s Michael Haneke’s race to lose.
BIGGEST SURPRISES
The Academy’s clear love for the indie “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and the foreign “Amour” elbowed out a surprising number of presumptive nominees, and nowhere more noticeably than the Best Director category. Many expected past winners Hooper and Bigelow on the list as well as a first-time nod for Affleck for “Argo.” And while “Beasts of the Southern Wild” has been a critic’s favorite since its Sundance debut, few expected director Benh Zeitlin to earn a mention.
METRO’S PREDICTIONS
Best Picture: “Lincoln”
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables”
Best Director: Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln”
LIST OF NOMINEES:
Performance by an 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”
Performance by an 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”
Performance by an 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”
Performance by an 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”
Best animated feature film of the year
“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
Achievement in cinematography
“Anna Karenina” Seamus McGarvey
“Django Unchained” Robert Richardson
“Life of Pi” Claudio Miranda
“Lincoln” Janusz Kaminski
“Skyfall” Roger Deakins
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
Best documentary feature
“5 Broken Cameras”
Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
“The Gatekeepers”
Nominees to be determined
“How to Survive a Plague”
Nominees to be determined
“The Invisible War”
Nominees to be determined
“Searching for Sugar Man”
Nominees to be determined
Best foreign language film of the year
“Amour” Austria
“Kon-Tiki” Norway
“No” Chile
“A Royal Affair” Denmark
“War Witch” Canada
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Anna Karenina” Dario Marianelli
“Argo” Alexandre Desplat
“Life of Pi” Mychael Danna
“Lincoln” John Williams
“Skyfall” Thomas Newman
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (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
Best motion picture of the year
“Amour” Nominees to be determined
“Argo” Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers
“Django Unchained” Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers
“Les Misérables” Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers
“Life of Pi” Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers
“Lincoln” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
“Silver Linings Playbook” Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
“Zero Dark Thirty” Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers
Achievement in visual effects
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
“Life of Pi”
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
“Marvel’s The Avengers”
Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
“Prometheus”
Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
“Snow White and the Huntsman”
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson
Adapted screenplay
“Argo” Screenplay by Chris Terrio
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
“Life of Pi” Screenplay by David Magee
“Lincoln” Screenplay by Tony Kushner
“Silver Linings Playbook” Screenplay by David O. Russell
Original screenplay
“Amour” Written by Michael Haneke
“Django Unchained” Written by Quentin Tarantino
“Flight” Written by John Gatins
“Moonrise Kingdom” Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
“Zero Dark Thirty” Written by Mark Boal
