85th Academy Award Nominees: A Few Thoughts

There's no massive outright travesty this year, though a few big surprises.

Here are some assorted facts and opinions. The full list of nominees is pasted further down.

GENERAL NOTES

Lincoln leads overall nominations with 12 total, making it a heavy favorite for Best Picture and Director.

Life of Pi, which got written off by many for some time (but I called as a mega-multi-category likely nominee in April), follows Lincoln very closely at 11 total nominations.

There are 9 Best Picture nominees.

Skyfall is now one of, if not the most multi-nominated James Bond movie in Oscar history, but didn't pick up a Picture nomination (here's hoping for Song).

Let's congratulate Academy Award nominees Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Hitchcock, and Seth McFarlane (Best Song for Ted).

Looks like The Weinstein Company spent most of their money on Silver Linings Playbook instead of movies like The Intouchables and others. How unsurprising.

Superhero movies were shut out of tech categories, where they're often heavily favored. No nominations for The Amazing Spider-Man or The Dark Knight Rises, and just one for The Avengers (Visual Effects).

Cloud Atlas got completely shut out, including tech categories like Makeup, Visual Effects, and others that one would think it appropriate for.

DIRECTING

Benh Zeitlin being nominated for Best Director (Beasts of the Southern Wild) over Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck, who were both heavy nominee favorites, was an enormous surprise.

Michael Haneke (Amour) was not picked for nomination by most Oscar handicappers. Seth McFarlane making a Nazi joke when his movie was nominated in the Foreign Film category will probably be a big scandal...in Europe.

Bradley Cooper said on morning TV today "I gotta say, Ben Affleck got robbed".

David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) was not a solid lock to get nominated, it's good he made it in.

The Master got a few acting nominations here and there, but got snubbed in Picture and Director. Maybe it peaked too early.

It's official: Christopher Nolan never got nominated for Best Director for making a Batman movie.

BEST ACTOR

A solid field, but don't know any of them have a prayer against Daniel Day-Lewis.

Bill Murray didn't get that "gold watch" nomination for Hyde Park on the Hudson.

BEST ACTRESS

Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) is now the oldest ever nominee in this category at 85.

Q Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) is now the youngest ever nominee in this category at 9.

ANIMATION

3 of the 5 nominees are Disney-company movies: Brave, Wreck-It Ralph, and Frankenweenie.

Both Studio Ghibli (From Up on Poppy Hill) and Dreamworks Animation (Madagascar 3, Rise of the Guardians) were completely shut out of Best Animated Feature.

Aardman Animation, whose early success was helped by an Animated short win, has now been nominated for their first Animated Feature, The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

The Simpsons has now been nominated for an Oscar (Animated Short).

SUPPORTING ACTOR

All nominated actors have previously won Oscars.

Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio were both snubbed for Django Unchained (in favor of Christoph Waltz), even though the movie is good enough for Best Picture.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook) was a big surprise in this category, but she's really good.

EDITING

One guy (William Goldenberg) is nominated twice this year (for Argo and with Dylan Tichenor for Zero Dark Thirty).

Only one nominee has previously won: Lincoln's Michael Kahn, who got Oscars for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan.

SCREENPLAY

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom got its only nomination here (in Original). At least it got the one.

I'm disappointed that Looper didn't get nominated for Original Screenplay (caveat: the writer/director is a friend of mine).

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Master, which will probably be the last major release completely shot on 70mm film, did not get nominated.

Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight Rises) got snubbed. Maybe you hated the movie, but that doesn't change the quality of work on display.

If Roger Deakins hadn't gotten nominated for Skyfall, I'd have thrown something at the wall. He's been nominated 9 times and never won.

SOUND

Both Brave and The Hobbit, whose sound editing and mixing was done in the new Dolby Atmos surround format, were snubbed in both audio tech categories.

SONG

There was a new song by Paul Williams ("Still Alive") that didn't get nominated. Huh.

FOREIGN FILM

The Intouchables (from France) was a heavy favorite for nomination, and not just because the Weinstein Company picked it up.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Chasing Ice got a Song nomination, but not Doc Feature. Weird.

MAKEUP

Hitchcock was nominated over Lincoln, Looper, Men in Black 3 (Rick "American Werewolf in London" Baker), and Snow White and the Huntsman.

Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook”
• Daniel Day-Lewisin “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

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

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 foreign language film of the year

• “Amour” Austria
• “Kon-Tiki” Norway
• “No” Chile
• “A Royal Affair” Denmark
• “War Witch” Canada

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 documentary short subject

• “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 Stern
• “Redemption”
  Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill

Achievement in film editing

• “Argo” William Goldenberg
• “Life of Pi” Tim Squyres
• “Lincoln” Michael Kahn
• “Silver Linings Playbook” Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
• “Zero Dark Thirty” Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg

Achievement in costume design

• “Anna Karenina” Jacqueline Durran
• “Les Misérables” Paco Delgado
• “Lincoln” Joanna Johnston
• “Mirror Mirror” Eiko Ishioka
• “Snow White and the Huntsman” Colleen Atwood

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

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

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 production design

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

Best animated short film

• “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

Best live action short film

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

Achievement in sound editing

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

Achievement in sound mixing

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

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