Here we are, it’s Awards Season here in Hollywood, and none are bigger than the Academy Awards. Celebrating their 85th year of honoring what they proclaim is the best of the best in cinema, the Academy released their list of nominations early this morning. Reading Twitter, reactions are all over the place, but everyone seems to be genuinely shocked that some of the heavy hitters like Kathryn Bigelow, Ben Affleck, Tom Hooper and Quentin Tarantino didn’t receive Best Director nominations.
My take on the this year’s nominees is a mixed bag. For starters, it doesn’t feel like there’s going to be a clear-cut favorite of the bunch. Before the list was announced, it looked like Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, and Les Miserables were going to be duking it out for film supremacy. Now, it seems the battle will be Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Life of Pi with Amour as a dark horse.
I will say, it’s both great and sort of surprising to see Amour nominated for the big awards and outright steal a Best Director nomination from the aforementioned. I do, however, applaud the Academy for not going with the easy choices of those four and giving Michael Haneke and Benh Zeitlin nods for their incredible work. Speaking of Beasts of the Southern Wild, Quvenzhane Wallis’ nomination in the Best Actress category should all but sew up a win for her. True, she’s young, but anyone who’s seen the film knows her performance blows away her competition this year.
If we’re going to talk snubs, then look no further than Moonrise Kingdom. While I think the Beasts of the Southern Wild love may have hurt Wes Anderson’s chances at nominations, it deserves a place in the Best Picture category over Les Miserables and favorites Silver Linings Playbook and Lincoln. Right behind that would be the very, very miniscule love for The Master, featuring only three nominations for Best Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress. While Twitter is abuzz with Looper being snubbed, I can’t say I fully agree. While I still find it to be a fine piece of science fiction, let’s not forget that the script has some issues (particularly the end of it.) But if you really want to discuss snubs, how about absolutely no love for Holy Motors. Truly absurd that a film that’s about the medium isn’t up for at least Best Foreign Film. If there’s anything the Academy should be ashamed of this year, it’d be this.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this all shakes out leading up to February 24th, the night of the 85th Academy Awards. I’ll give my full predictions when we get closer to that fateful night, but for now, here’s the complete list of nominations:
Best Picture: “Amour,” “Argo,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Django Unchained,” “Les Miserables,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Actor: Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”; Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”; Hugh Jackman, “Les Miserables”; Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”; Denzel Washington, “Flight.”
Actress: Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”; Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”; Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”; Quvenzhane Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”; Naomi Watts, “The Impossible.”
Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, “Argo”; Robert De Niro, “Silver Linings Playbook”; Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”; Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”; Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained.”
Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, “The Master”; Sally Field, “Lincoln”; Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables”; Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”; Jacki Weaver, “Silver Linings Playbook.”
6. Directing: Michael Haneke, “Amour”; Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”; Ang Lee, “Life of Pi”; Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln”; David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook.”
Foreign Language Film: “Amour,” Austria; “Kon-Tiki,” Norway; “No,” Chile; “A Royal Affair,” Denmark; “War Witch,” Canada.
Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, “Argo”; Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”; David Magee, “Life of Pi”; Tony Kushner, “Lincoln”; David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook.”
Original Screenplay: Michael Haneke, “Amour”; Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”; John Gatins, “Flight”; Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, “Moonrise Kingdom”; Mark Boal, “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Animated Feature Film: “Brave”; “Frankenweenie”; “ParaNorman”; “The Pirates! Band of Misfits”; “Wreck-It Ralph.”
Production Design: “Anna Karenina,” “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Les Miserables,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln.”
Cinematography: “Anna Karenina,” “Django Unchained,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln,” “Skyfall.”
Sound Mixing: “Argo,” “Les Miserables,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln,” “Skyfall.”
Sound Editing: “Argo,” “Django Unchained,” “Life of Pi,” “Skyfall,” “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Original Score: “Anna Karenina,” Dario Marianelli; “Argo,” Alexandre Desplat; “Life of Pi,” Mychael Danna; “Lincoln,” John Williams; “Skyfall,” Thomas Newman.
Original Song: “Before My Time” from “Chasing Ice,” J. Ralph; “Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from “Ted,” Walter Murphy and Seth MacFarlane; “Pi’s Lullaby” from “Life of Pi,” Mychael Danna and Bombay Jayashri; “Skyfall” from “Skyfall,” Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth; “Suddenly” from “Les Miserables,” Claude-Michel Schonberg, Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil.
Costume: “Anna Karenina,” “Les Miserables,” “Lincoln,” “Mirror Mirror,” “Snow White and the Huntsman.”
Documentary Feature: “5 Broken Cameras,” “The Gatekeepers,” “How to Survive a Plague,” “The Invisible War,” “Searching for Sugar Man.”
Documentary (short subject): “Inocente,” “Kings Point,” “Mondays at Racine,” “Open Heart,” “Redemption.”
Film Editing: “Argo,” “Life of Pi,” “Lincoln,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Makeup and Hairstyling: “Hitchcock,” “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Les Miserables.”
Animated Short Film: “Adam and Dog,” “Fresh Guacamole,” “Head over Heels,” “Maggie Simpson in ‘The Longest Daycare,'” “Paperman.”
Live Action Short Film: “Asad,” “Buzkashi Boys,” “Curfew,” “Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw),” “Henry.”
Visual Effects: “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Life of Pi,” “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Prometheus,” “Snow White and the Huntsman.”
