The Oscar noms: Tons of surprises

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has been trying desperately to shake up their Oscar nominations, and they finally succeeded. In what was generally considered one of the strongest movie years in a decade, the nominations this morning had tons of surprises — many exactly of the kind they wanted, including a powerhouse appearance by indie hit Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Still, many of the predicted frontrunners did expectedly well, with Lincoln scoring the most nominations (12, including three for acting — tied for the most ever acting noms from a Steven Spielberg-directed film), followed closely by my favorite film of the year, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, which, with 11 nods, has the most ever for a film that didn’t receive a single acting nomination. Also, the dreadful Silver Linings Playbook did well, largely via the push by Harvey Weinstein, despite being the worst movie of 2012. Bernie and Cloud Atlas were completely snubbed, as was Matthew McConaughey, who did four films with some buzz last year.

The biggest upsets were in the direction category, with four of the frontrunners — former Oscar winners Kathryn Bigelow, Tom Hooper, Quentin Tarantino and Ben Affleck — all being passed over for inferior work from David O. Russell for SLP, and Beasts‘ Ben Zeitlin in his film debut.

Some good surprises include gay filmmaker David France’s AIDS movie How to Survive a Plague nominated for best documentary feature and The Simpsons‘ cartoon The Longest Daycare snagging a nom for animated short.

All the nominations after the jump.

PICTURE                       

Lincoln

Zero Dark Thirty

Life of Pi

Django Unchained

Argo

Silver Linings Playbook

Les Miserables

Amour

Beasts of the Southern Wild

DIRECTING 

Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Ang Lee, Pi

David O. Russell, SLP

Michael Haneke, Amour

Ben Zeitlin, Beasts

ACTOR 

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Hugh Jackman, Les Miz

Denzel Washington, Flight

Bradley Cooper, SLP

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, Zero

Jennifer Lawrence, SLP

Emmanuel Riva, Amour

Quvanzhane’ Wallis, Beasts

Naomi Watts, The Impossible

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christoph Waltz, Django

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Alan Arkin, Argo

Robert DeNiro, SLP

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Anne Hathaway, Les Miz

Sally Field, Lincoln

Amy Adams, The Master

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Jackie Weaver, SLP

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Zero

Moonrise

Django

Flight

Amour

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Lincoln

Argo

SLP

Pi

Beasts

CINEMATOGRAPHY 

Lincoln

Pi

Skyfall

Django

Anna Karenina

FILM EDITING

Lincoln

Life of Pi

Zero

Argo

Anna Karenina

ART DIRECTION

Les Miz

Anna Karenina

Lincoln

The Hobbit

Life of Pi

COSTUMES 

Les Miz

Anna Karenina

Lincoln

Snow White

Anna Karenina

SCORE

Lincoln

Skyfall

Life of Pi

Anna Karenina

Argo

SONG

Skyfall

Les Miz

Ted

Chasing Ice

Life of Pi

SOUND MIXING 

Skyfall

Les Miz

Pi

Lincoln

Argo

SOUND EDITING 

Skyfall

Zero

Life of Pi

Django

Argo

VISUAL EFFECTS

The Avengers

Life of Pi

Prometheus

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Snow White and the Huntsman

MAKEUP 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Lincoln

Hitchcock

ANIMATED FEATURE 

Brave

Wreck-It Ralph

ParaNorman

Frankenweenie

The Pirates! A Band of Misfits

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Amour (Austria)

War Witch (Canada)

A Royal Affair (Denmark)

No (Chile)

Kon-Tiki (Norway)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Searching for Sugar Man

How to Survive a Plague, pictured

The Gatekeepers

The Invisible War

5 Broken Cameras

ANIMATED SHORT

Adam and Dog

Fresh Guacamole

Head over Heels

Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare

Paperman