Oscar Nominations Announced – Lincoln Leads the Way

It’s that time of the year again – the Oscar nominations seem to come back around quicker and quicker, don’t they? This year Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln is leading the pack with a total of twelve nominations, while Life of Pi is right on its tail with eleven.

Quentin Tarantino’s latest Django Unchained was expected to scoop a whole barrel of nods at this year’s Academy Awards, but in the end has come away with just five – Best Film, Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz, Original Screenplay, Cinematography and Sound Editing. Big things were also expected of Zero Dark Thirty, the new offering from director Kathryn Bigelow (who became the first woman ever to win a Best Director Oscar three years ago with The Hurt Locker), but the film has also received only five nominations, including Best Film and Best Actress for Jessica Chastain. Even though Bigelow and Tarantino have been overlooked for Best Director this time, we’re betting they’re both still pretty pleased with themselves.

What seems a small number of nods for Bigelow and Tarantino is an absolutely epic amount for Michael Haneke’s Amour, which has also received five nominations. A French language film which has already been picking up awards all over Europe (including the Palme d’Or), Amour is up for both Best Film and Best Foreign Film – to be honest, it wouldn’t be totally impossible for it to go home with both. Still, Amour will be up against some pretty stiff competition in both categories, including from Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Beasts of the Southern Wild (up for four gongs, including Best Film).

Ben Affleck’s Argo has received a surprising seven nominations, including for Best Film and Best Supporting Actor, while musical Les Miserables is up for eight awards. Left-field comedy romance Silver Linings Playbook has also received a more than respectable eight nods, including Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence.

However, this year’s two enormous fish in a not quite so enormous pond are undoubtedly Life of Pi and Lincoln. With eleven and twelve nominations respectively, it seems very likely that one of these two films will be the big winner in 2013. Both movies have been receiving rave reviews, but this one’s just too close to call – and there’s always the chance that a dark horse could sweep the board (Silver Linings Playbook, anyone?).

The Academy Awards will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles this February 24^th. What do you think of this year’s nominations? Who’s your money on for Best Film? Let us know via Twitter!