Ok, let's see. First, a huge congrats to Quvenzhané Wallis who, as the title of this post states, has made history, becoming the youngest actress ever to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actress category. She's just 9 years old. The previous record holder in that category was Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was nominated for Whale Rider in 2003. She was 14.
Congrats are also in order for Rebelle (aka War Witch), which is nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category – a film that was on our best of 2012 list. Hat-tip to director Kim Nguyen, and star Rachel Mwanza, whom I would have loved to see get a Best Actress nomination.
As expected, Denzel Washington was nominated for his work in Flight, in the Best Actor category – an award that I think he actually could win, given the competition.
Also of note, in addition to Wallis' Best Actress nom, Beasts of the Southern Wild did fairly well, as the little indie that could, amongst some stalwarts. It was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture.
Biggest surprises? I'm really shocked that Kathryn Bigelow isn't nominated for Best Director. Zero Dark Thirty is nominated in other categories, like Best Actress, and Best Picture, as you'd expect, but how the heck does Bigelow get left out?
No Oscar love for The Central Park Five or Detropia in the Best Documentary category – 2 solid documentaries that we've covered quite extensively here on S&A.
Django Unchained did pick up 3 noms – Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. The surprise there is that Christoph Waltz got the Best Supporting Actor nom over Leonardo DiCaprio, who I thought delivered the best performance in that movie.
Ben Affleck's Argo picked up a few nominations, but he was also left out of the Best Director category. But that's actually fine with me, because, as I noted in a previous post, I think the movie is a bit over-rated. But it did get a Best Picture nom.
Quentin Tarantino was also left out of the Best Director noms. But I'm ok with that too.
And finally, Harvey Weinstein does it again! He has 2 movies that are very well represented on this year's list – Silver Linings Playbook and Django Unchained. Silver alone is nominated in at least 7 of the major categories. I guess I should see it.
But the rest of the story is pretty much as expected. No other major surprises.
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)
Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook)
Alan Arkin (Argo)
Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Sally Field (Lincoln)
Ann Hathaway (Les Miserables)
Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)
Helen Hunt (The Sessions)
Amy Adams (Lincoln)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Amour
No
War Witch
A Royal Affair
Kontiki
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Argo
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Life of Pi
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Flight
Zero Dark Thirty
Django Unchained
Amour
Moonrise Kingdom
BEST DIRECTOR
David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)
Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
Steven Speilberg (Lincoln)
Michael Haneke (Amour)
Behn Zeitlin (Beasts Of The Southern Wild)
BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln)
Denzel Washington (Flight)
Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables)
Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)
Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)
BEST 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)
BEST PICTURE
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Amour
Django Unchained
Argo
BEST DOCUMENTARY
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph
