"Life of Pi" surprisingly ran second with 11 nominations, ahead of "Zero Dark
Thirty" and "Les Misérables," which had been considered potential
front-runners.
"I thought we'd get a few, so this is really great for us," said "Life of Pi"
director Ang Lee. "Eleven really surprised me. But it's a
good surprise. I'm very happily surprised."
More surprising were snubs in the directing category, where three favorites
missed out: Ben Affleck for "Argo" and past Oscar winners Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper for "Les Misérables." Bigelow was the
first woman ever the win the directing Oscar for 2009's "The Hurt Locker," while Hooper won a year later
for "The King's Speech."
The best-picture category also had surprising omissions. The acclaimed
first-love tale "Moonrise Kingdom" was left out and only got one
nomination, for original screenplay. Also snubbed for best-picture was "The Master," a critical favorite that did manage
three acting nominations, for Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Two-time winner Spielberg earned his seventh directing nomination, and also
in the mix are past winner Lee for "Life of Pi" and past nominee David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook."
The other slots went to surprise picks who are first-time nominees: Michael Haneke for his French-language "Amour" and
Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern
Wild."
Oscar directing contenders often are identical or at least usually line up
closely with those for the Directors Guild of America Awards. But only Spielberg
and Lee made both lists this time. The Directors Guild also nominated Affleck,
Bigelow and Hooper, but not Haneke, Russell or Zeitlin.
Haneke's "Amour" also was a best-picture surprise. The film, which won the
top prize at last May's Cannes Film Festival, mainly had been considered a
favorite in the foreign-language category, where it also was nominated. "Amour"
had five nominations, including original screenplay and best-actress for Emmanuelle Riva.
"It is fulfilling to discover that a film has found the audience and critical
acclaim that 'Amour' has garnered," Haneke said. "I have been very fortunate on
both those fronts, but it is especially rewarding to discover that a film has
found favor among one's industry peers who know, in particular, the effort that
goes into getting a film any film made."
The year's second-biggest box-office hit, "The Dark Knight Rises," was shut out entirely,
even for visual effects. The omission of its predecessor, "The Dark Knight,"
from best-picture consideration for 2008 was largely responsible for the
expansion of the Oscar category from five nominees to 10 the following year.
"The Dark Knight" had earned eight nominations and won two Oscars.
Chronicling Abraham Lincoln's final months as he engineers passage of the
13th Amendment abolishing slavery, "Lincoln" stars best-actor contender
Day-Lewis in a monumental performance as the 16th president, supporting-actress
nominee Field as the notoriously headstrong Mary Todd Lincoln and
supporting-actor prospect Jones as abolitionist firebrand Thaddeus Stevens.
Joining Day-Lewis in the best-actor field are Bradley Cooper as a psychiatric patient trying to
get his life back together in "Silver Linings Playbook"; Hugh Jackman as Victor Hugo's tragic hero Jean
Valjean in "Les Misérables"; Phoenix as a Navy vet who falls in with a cult in
"The Master"; and Denzel Washington as a boozy airline pilot in "Flight."
Cooper had been a bit of a longshot. John Hawkes, a potential best-actor favorite,
missed out for his role as a man in an iron lung aiming to lose his virginity in
"The Sessions."
Nominated for best actress are Jessica Chastain as a CIA operative
hunting bin Laden in "Zero Dark Thirty"; Jennifer Lawrence as a troubled
young widow struggling to heal in "Silver Linings Playbook"; Riva as an ailing
woman tended by her husband in "Amour"; Quvenzhané Wallis as a spirited girl on the
Louisiana delta in "Beasts of the Southern Wild"; and Naomi Watts as a mother caught up in a devastating
tsunami in "The Impossible."
Best actress had a wild age range: Riva is the oldest nominee ever in the
category at 85, while Wallis is the youngest ever at 9.
Along with Field, supporting-actress nominees are Adams as a cult leader's
devoted wife in "The Master"; Anne Hathaway as an outcast mother reduced to
prostitution in "Les Misérables"; Helen Hunt as a sex surrogate in "The Sessions";
and Jacki Weaver as an unstable man's doting mom in
"Silver Linings Playbook."
Besides Jones, the supporting-actor contenders are Alan Arkin as a wily Hollywood producer in "Argo";
Robert De Niro as a football-obsessed patriarch in
"Silver Linings Playbook"; Hoffman as a dynamic cult leader in "The Master"; and
Christoph Waltz as a genteel bounty hunter in
"Django Unchained."
"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, who will host the Feb. 24 Oscars,
joined Emma Stone to announce the Oscar
lineup, and he scored a nomination himself. He's up for original song for
"Everybody Needs a Best Friend," the tune he co-wrote for his big-screen
directing debut "Ted."
"That's kind of cool I got nominated," MacFarlane deadpanned at the
announcement. "I get to go to the Oscars."
"I'm absolutely blown away," ''Wreck-It Ralph" director Rich Moore said. "It is weird at 5:30 in the
morning to hear Emma Stone say your name. It's surreal."
"Lincoln" is Spielberg's best awards prospect since his critical peak in the
1990s, when he won best-picture and directing Oscars for "Schindler's List" and
a second directing Oscar for "Saving Private Ryan."
Spielberg's latest film could vault him, Day-Lewis and Field to new heights
among Hollywood's super-elite of multiple Oscar winners.
A best-picture win for "Lincoln" would be Spielberg's second, while another
directing win would be his third, a feat achieved only by Frank Capra and
William Wyler, who each earned three directing Oscars, and John Ford, who received four.
"Lincoln" also was the ninth best-picture nominee Spielberg has directed,
moving him into a tie for second-place with Ford. Only Wyler directed more
best-picture nominees, with 13.
Day-Lewis and Field both have two lead-acting Oscars already, he for "My Left Foot" and "There Will Be Blood" and she for "Norma Rae" and "Places in the Heart." A third Oscar for either
would put them in rare company with previous triple winners Ingrid Bergman,
Walter Brennan, Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Katharine Hepburn is the record-holder with four
acting Oscars.
An Oscar for Jones would be his second supporting-actor prize; he previously
won for "The Fugitive."
"Lincoln" composer John Williams -- whose five Oscars include three
for the music of three earlier Spielberg films, "Jaws," ''E.T. the Extra-terrestrial" and "Schindler's List"
-- earned his 43rd nomination for best score, extending his all-time record in
the category.
The Oscars feature a best-picture field that ranges from five to 10 films
depending on a complex formula of ballots from the 5,856 voting members of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Nominations in most categories are decided by ballots from members of
specific academy branches -- such as directors, writers or actors. All members
are eligible to vote for best-picture nominees, and the entire academy can vote
in every category for the actual Oscars, whose balloting begins Feb. 8.
Winners for the 85th Oscars will be announced Feb. 24 at a ceremony aired
live on ABC from Hollywood's Dolby Theatre.
___
AP entertainment writers Christy Lemire, Sandy Cohen, Anthony McCartney and
Derrik Lang in Los Angeles and AP writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to
this report.
I love that Argo won best picture but Ben Affleck should have got a best director nod also. Happy for the cast of Lincoln. That was an excellent movie and did not need any special effects either.
Congratulations to Denzel he was awesome in Flight. I am disappointed that yet again Leonardo DiCaprio did not get a nomination. He is so overdue for an Oscar. Excited for Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field saw them act together in an unknown film Back Roads and knew both of them would go far. Loved that they reunited all these years later.
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