Academy Award Nominations: Lincoln Leads the Pack

This year’s Oscars may not take place until Feb. 24, but the ceremony’s host, Seth MacFarlane, already started earning his salary Thursday morning – by joining Emma Stone to announce the nominees for the 85th annual Academy Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ headquarters in Beverly Hills.

And the name that kept coming up: Lincoln, which reaped the lion’s share number of nominations, 12, including those for Best Picture, Best Director Steven Spielberg, Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis and Supporting Actress Sally Field.

Other highly recognized films were Life of Pi, with 11 nominations; Les Misérables, with nine; and Argo, with seven, though, surprisingly, not one for its director Ben Affleck.

Due to recent rules, the Best Picture category can have anywhere from five to 10 nominees. This year, there are a total of nine. They are:
• Argo
• Amour
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Django Unchained
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

In the other major categories, the nominees are:

Best Actor
• Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
• Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
• Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
• Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
• Denzel Washington, Flight

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

Supporting Actor
• Alan Arkin, Argo
• Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
• Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
• Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Supporting Actress
• Amy Adams, The Master
• Sally Field, Lincoln
• Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
• Helen Hunt, The Sessions
• Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

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

For the complete list of nominations, click here.

The 85th annual Academy Awards will air live Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.