The announcement ceremony of the 2013 Oscar Nominations was certainly one to remember, and not necessarily for host Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone’s wisecracks:
Once again nine nominees for Best Picture. “Argo”, “Les Miserables”, “Lincoln”, “Life of Pi”, “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Zero Dark Thirty” were expected. A lot of love for “Amour” and “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, as both films received Best Picture nominations, plus their directors (Michael Haneke and Benn Zeitlen) picked-up surprise Best Director nominations, and leading ladies (9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis and 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva) are up for Best Actress.
The surprise nomination of “Silver Linings Playbook” director David O. Russell also forced “Argo”‘s Ben Affleck, “Zero Dark Thirty”‘s Kathryn Bigelow (who won three years ago for “The Hurt Locker”), “Les Miserables”‘s Tom Hooper (who won two years ago for “The King’s Speech”), and “Django Unchained”‘s Quentin Tarantino out of the running. “Lincoln” director Steven Spielberg and “Life of Pi” director Ang Lee are nominated.
“Silver Linings” had a very good morning. The film is nominated in all of the six major categories. Not many saw Jacki Weaver’s Supporting Actress nod coming, as she knocked-out several hopeful contenders including Maggie Smith (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”), Ann Dowd (“Compliance”) and Nicole Kidman (“The Paperboy”). John Hawkes is off the ballot for his performance in “The Sessions”, while co-star Helen Hunt is nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
“The Master”‘s three lead actors (Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams) are all nominated, but the film is not up for Best Picture. Seems the early buzz for the movie died up the performances remained frsh in the minds of the voters. Marion Cotillard and Helen Mirren were getting a lot of buzz for their performances in “Rust and Bone” and “Hitchcock” respectively, but both were also denied.
Now onto my personal favorite: Best Animated Feature. It’s a HUGE year for Disney as three of their 2012 animated films (Pixar’s “Brave”, Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie” and “Wreck-It Ralph”) are all up for the honor, along with “ParaNorman”, which has been winning film critics circles across the country. But the big pleasant surprise: Aardman’s hilarious stop-motion animated farce “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” snagged a nomination away from DreamWorks’ “Rise of the Guardians”. Overlooked by audiences, but loved by critics, “The Pirates!” should attract a lot more attention during awards season.
Also happy for Naomi Watts, didn’t expect to hear Ewan McGregor’s name, but it would have been nice. In the Documentary Feature category, frontrunner “Searching for Sugar Man” is a nominee, while the controversial but impactful “Bully” is snubbed.
At least “Hitchcock” gets a little love with a Best Makeup and Hairstyling nomination. Even though nominee Daniel Day-Lewis truly looked like Abraham Lincoln, the makeup wasn’t good enough to be nominated in that category. “Mirror Mirror”‘s only highlight is the costume design, which is why it’s nominated along with “Anna Karenina”. And just as I predicted, “The Simpsons” are going to the Academy Awards. The animated short film “Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare” will be going-up against Disney’s “Paperman” and three others on Oscar Sunday.
And the Academy didn’t seem to fall in love with Bond, James Bond , as “Skyfall” and Javier Bardem did not receive nominations, but Adele did for her title song. The Original Song category also featured another surprise: “Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from “Ted”. MacFarlane, who wrote the lyrics, reacted to his nomination by saying, “I get to go to the Oscars now”, which got a big laugh. The 85th Annual Academy Awards are Sunday February 24th on ABC.