"Lincoln" and "Life of Pi" Dominate the Oscar Nominations

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln scored twelve Academy Award nominations, the most for any film, followed closely by Life of Pi, with 11. The accolades for Lincoln are not surprising, since it has received much buzz and acclaim since its premiere a couple of months ago. However, Life of Pi has not received nearly as much positive buzz but, in my opinion, it is the better film. So, I am pleased with the recognition that it received. In addition, I think Ang Lee is poised to win for Best Director, since both Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck were snubbed, even though their films, Zero Dark Thirty and Argo, are nominated for Best Picture. At this point, I do not think any film will dominate the Oscars, so the field is open for any number of films to walk away with major awards.

Speaking of snubs, John Hawkes is absent from the list of Best Actor nominees, even though he gave one of the best performances of the year in The Sessions. I am also disappointed that The Perks of Being a Wallflower, one of the year's best films, was completely shut out. However, there are many positive things to note. For instance, the race for Best Animated film features ParaNorman and Frankenweenie, two of my favorites from 2012. However, they face tough competition in Brave. In addition, the Supporting Actor race is probably the most competitive of all the races and the five nominees have each won previously. Perhaps the most unexpected nominee for Supporting Actor is Christoph Waltz, not because he does not deserve to be recognized, but because he has not received the buzz that other stars of Django Unchained have, including Leonardo DiCaprio. Waltz won his first Oscar for another Quentin Tarantino film, Inglorious Basterds, and he could win again. However, he is competing against Tommy Lee Jones, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Alan Arkin, so it looks like an uphill battle. Finally, the Best Actress race features both the youngest and the oldest nominees ever, Emmanuelle Riva for Amour, who is 85, and Quvenzhane Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild, who is just nine years old. 

Here is a complete list of the nominess:

Picture
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Amour
Django Unchained
Argo

Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Denzel Washington, Flight
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Actress
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Alan Arkin, Argo
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Supporting Actress
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Amy Adams, The Master

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Original Song
"Before My Time," Chasing Ice
"Pi’s Lullaby," Life of Pi
"Suddenly," Les Miserables
"Everybody Needs A Best Friend," Ted
"Skyfall," Skyfall

Sound Editing
Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn, Argo

Wylie Stateman, Django Unchained
Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton, Life of Pi
Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers, Skyfall
Paul N.J. Ottosson, Zero Dark Thirty

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

Animated Feature Film
Frankenweenie
Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph
Paranorman
Brave

Foreign Language Film
Austria: Amour
Chile: No
Canada: War Witch
Denmark: A Royal Affair
Norway: Kontiki

Documentary Feature
5 Broken Cameras

The Gatekeepers

How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War

Searching for Sugar Man

Documentary Short
"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

Animated Short
"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

Live Action Short
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