The 85th Annual Academy Award Nominations Announced!

This is it folks. The Oscar nominations were announced this morning. This is a dayI both look forward to… and dread!  Overall, I have to admit,  I was pleasantly surprised by the nominations this year.  Lincoln received the most nominations with 12, Life of Pi received 11 nominations.  The Silver Linings Playbook received 8 nominations, with Argo and Les Miserables  receiving 7 nominations each, followed by Amour, Django Unchained, Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty all received 5 nominations.

 

Oh, here are the nominees and I will discuss after the list:

 

Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards

Best performance by an actor in a leading role:

Bradley Cooper in “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewisin “Lincoln”
Hugh Jackmanin “Les Misérables”
Joaquin Phoenixin “The Master”
Denzel Washingtonin “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 Huntin “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 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 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”
“How to Survive a Plague”
“The Invisible War”
“Searching for Sugar Man”

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

 

Best foreign language film of the year

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Now for my overall impressions:

 

Excellent Nominations Hosts
Considering it was a 5:30 am announcement time, both Seth MacFarlene and Emma Stone were hip and energetic. Emma Stone made a joke that all the Best Supporting Acting nominees are previous winners and that the Best Supporting Actress Category ‘You ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein’ might be a classic Oscar line! And this wasn’t even the ceremony! I think she should consider co-hosting with him.

 

Best Actor’s Tight Race
There had to be someone left off the Best Actor list. It was meant to happen and sadly, it was John Hawkes of “The Session.” With such a solid lineup, I am not shocked nor upset that he was omitted. I am happy for Joaquin Phoenix receiving some love for “The Master” and though shut out of Picture and Director, “The Master” received nods for supporting acting for including Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams as well.

 

‘Wild’ Surprises

The morning’s biggest surprise came from “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” 30 year old Benh Zeitlin was nominated for Best Director for “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (!!!) and Quvenzhané Wallis became the youngest person ever nominated for Best Actress at 9 years old! I had the opportunity to interview them last summer and it was pleasure to do so. Congrats to them!

Kenny Miles and Academy Award Best Director nominee Benh Zeitlin

 

Harsh Snubs
Ben Affleck, Katherine Bigelow, and Quinten Taratino were left off the Best Director contenders. In the case of both “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Django Unchained” it appears that the films that stir controversy didn’t sell well in the play it safe movie year of 2012. The Bigelow snub was a shocker! “Chasing Ice” received a Best Song nomination, but not an actual Best Documentary nomination and “The Dark Knight Rises” was completely shut out and unfortunately, this was expected considering “Skyfall” took many of the nominations that “The Dark Knight Rises” was expected to receive. Some may speculate the snub ties to the Aurora shooting, but I don’t believe that this is the case. Also, the financial dud “Cloud Atlas” was completely shut out! Thankfully, “The Intouchables” wasn’t nominated for Best Foreign Film!

 

My Case Was Heard
I pleaded with the Academy to include some movies that I thought deserved nomination. In addition to Benh Zeitlin getting some attention there were other films that I supposrted too. “ParaNorman” was nominated for Best Animated Feature and I was thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview them last August and glad the Academy selected such a politically incorrect film. “Invisible War” was nominated for Best Documentary and I think it was the right decision because that movie deserves an audience. With these categories you never know whats to expect with the Academy and their tastes and I was glad to see these two worthy films represented. It’s as if those nods make up for the virtual shut out of “Moonrise Kingdom”… almost!

 

 

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About Kenny Miles

Whether something is overlooked by Hollywood or whatever business trend has captured the Entertainment Industry’s attention, Kenny Miles loves to talk about movies (especially the cultural impact of a film). He covers various aspects of movies including specialty genre films, limited release, independent, foreign language, documentary features, and THE much infamous "awards season." Also, he likes to offer his opinion on the business of film, marketing strategy, and branding. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado and is a member of the Denver Film Critics Society critics group. You can follow him on Twitter @kmiles723.

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