Beasts Of the Southern Wild Oscars Nominations: Quvenzhané Wallis Nominated For Best Actress

Oscar nominations were announced this morning just after 5:30 a.m. PST, an ungodly hour for presenters Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone, but one that takes full advantage of the day’s news cycle and gets the Oscars race off to a swinging start.

There weren’t too many surprises, but there were a few notable achievements (as well as some unexpected snubs). As expected, Lincoln leads the pack with a total of 12 nominations. Silver Linings Playbook, Les Misérables, and Django Unchanined join Lincoln in the major categories, as well as Life of Pi, nominated in 11 categories. Everyone’s favorite indie of the season, Beasts of the Southern Wild, also made a strong showing.

French drama Amour was particularly successful for a foreign language film, with five nominations including Best Picture as well as Best Foreign Language Film. The unfailingly British James Bond also found some success, with five nominations for Skyfall (though not the elusive Best Picture category, which has never favored 007). This year’s awards will feature a 50th anniversary retrospective of Bond films, one of the Academy’s perennial attempts to draw in a larger audience.

Though the larger Best Picture category includes nine nominees this year, the films in the Best Director category generally indicate which films are the front-runners. Argo failed to pick up a Best Director (or Actor) nomination for Ben Affleck, as did Zero Dark Thirty for previous winner Kathryn Bigelow (the only female victor in the category to date), and Django Unchained for Quentin Tarantino – snubs for all three notable directors.

In the Best Actress category, nominees include both the oldest (Emmanuelle Riva, Amour, 85) and youngest (Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild, 9) nominees in Oscar history. And interestingly, no matter who wins Best Supporting Actor, a golden Oscar will be just another trophy to add to the case: all the nominees, from Alan Arkin to Cristoph Waltz, are previous winners.

The Golden Globes will be hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler this Sunday, and generally offer a good preview of Oscar winners (be sure to follow along with PolicyMic’s live blog of the event).

The list of major category nominees is below; a full list can be found here. Check back to see all the winners (and losers) on PolicyMic’s Oscars live blog during the ceremony on February 24 at 7 p.m. EST (airing on ABC). 

Best Picture

Best Director

Best Actress

Best Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Supporting Actor

Best Original Song

Best Animated Feature Film

Best Foreign Language Film

Best Original Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay