2013 Oscar Nominations

It’s funny, as years go by (which is a nice way of saying, “As I get older…”) my movie tastes align less and less with those of Oscar voters. Noting this, I admit with full admiration and glee that I get more excited than a kid at Christmas the morning of the Oscar nominations. And this morning’s list of nominees is a perfect reason why. Here’s a breakdown of the major categories: who’s in, who’s out, and what it’s all about.

Best Picture

Amour

Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty

Nothing surprising here at all. I thought Moonrise Kingdom might sneak in, but I’m not at all surprised that it didn’t. The biggest winner of the day has to be Beasts of the Southern Wild, which we’ll get to…

Best Director

Ang Lee – Life of Pi

Michael Haneke – Amour

David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook

Steven Spielberg – Lincoln

Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Benh Zeitlin and Quvenzhané Wallis

By far the biggest shock of this year’s Oscar nominations is the exclusion of Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) in this category. If you asked me yesterday, I would’ve said this race was going to be between Spielberg and Bigelow, no question. But with 30-year-old Zeitlin, and veteran Haneke stealing two spots, you can be damn sure things have been shaken up. Ask me now and I’ll tell you this is a Silver Linings Playbook vs. Lincoln kind of year.

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook

Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln

Hugh Jackman – Les Misérables

Joaquin Phoenix – The Master

Denzel Washington – Flight

Denzel Washington

Again, no real surprises. If Day-Lewis emerges as the front-runner, he has bullshit Oscar politics working against him: no male has ever won three Best Actor Oscar trophies.

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty

Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook

Emmanuelle Riva – Amour

Quvenzhané Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Naomi Watts – The Impossible

Jennifer Lawrence

Ah, my dear, sweet Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone). Much like Michael Fassbender last year, my favorite performance of the year was once again snubbed for Oscar consideration. But either way, I’m happy with these nominees. We have an 85-year-old against a 9-year-old, I mean, hells bells, what’s not to like?

Best Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin – Argo

Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook

Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master

Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln

Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained

Philip Seymour Hoffman

I can live with these, but there are a handful of excellent performances left out. Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained) and Matthew McConaughey (Magic Mike) are two I would’ve loved to have seen. But so it goes.

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams – The Master

Sally Field – Lincoln

Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables

Helen Hunt – The Sessions

Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook

Jacki Weaver

Weaver is a huge surprise, but one I am happy to see. Silver Linings Playbook nabbing nominations in every acting category puts it in a very elite class of films including, A Streetcar Named Desire, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Network, and most recently Reds, which pulled the feat 31 years ago.

Best Original Screenplay

Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola – Moonrise Kingdom

Mark Boal – Zero Dark Thirty

John Gatins – Flight

Michael Haneke – Amour

Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained

QT

You know what, this may just be my favorite category this year. Gatins’ nomination is a huge surprise, but one I am extremely pleased with. I know many of my dear readers didn’t care for Flight, but I loved it then, and I love it more now.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Tony Kushner – Lincoln

David Magee – Life of Pi

David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook

Chris Terrio – Argo

Tony Kushner

If Beasts of the Southern Wild has a shot at winning anything, it’ll be Best Adapted Screenplay. But goddamn does it have some stiff competition.

Best Foreign Language Film

Amour

Kon-Tiki

No

A Royal Affiar

War Witch

Amour

If Rust and Bone, my favorite film of the year, had a shot at any nomination, it was here. Time to let that one go.

The Intouchables has been a critical and commercial sensation both here and abroad, and its absence is baffling to me (but one I’m rather excited by). Why? Because it paves way for Michael Haneke to finally win.

Best Documentary

5 Broken Cameras

The Gatekeepers

How to Survive a Plague

The Invisible War

Searching for Sugar Man

How to Survive a Plague

The Imposter and The Central Park Five were my two favorite documentaries of the year. Bummed to see them missing, but there are some great flicks here nonetheless.

Click here to view the full list of Oscar nominees

Now to you: Biggest shocks, letdowns, appreciations. Have at it!