Awards Season 2013: Academy Award Nominations

As announced earlier today, here is a selection of the nominations for this year's Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE

Amour

Argo

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

Life Of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

BEST DIRECTOR

Michael Haneke (Amour)

Ang Lee (Life Of Pi)

David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

Benh Zeitlin (Beasts Of The Southern Wild)

BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)

Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables)

Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

Denzel Washington (Flight)

BEST 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)

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)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams (The Master)

Sally Field (Lincoln)

Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

Helen Hunt (The Sessions)

Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)

I make it 27 out of 34 predictions, which I work out to be 79% successful. Better than last year (where I got 25/34 or 73%). A few surprises on the list, notably Amour for Best Picture and Michael Haneke for Best Director. Congratulations to all nominees, but especially to Emmanuelle Riva and Quvenzhane Wallis; they are (to date) the oldest and youngest Best Actress nominees respectively.

In other categories, Skyfall received five nominations (Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Song for 'Skyfall', Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing), whilst Avengers Assemble gets a nod for Best Visual Effects (along with Prometheus, Snow White And The Huntsman, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Life Of Pi). 

Sadly, The Dark Knight Rises is not nominated for any Academy Award, a slightly egregious oversight if you ask me. But Seth MacFarlane's movie Ted gets a nod for Best Original Song!

A full list of nominees can be found here.

The 85th Annual Academy Awards will take place on Sunday 24 February 2012 with Seth MacFarlane taking up host duties. If his banter with Emma Stone is anything to go by, it's going to be an interesting night. Looking forward to it!