Arguably the most important, head-turning award in the history of filmmaking. Filmmakers the world over try their hardest to get this prestigious award, but very few even pass the nomination session.
Nothing says "Thank you for your amazing contribution to the history, art, and life of filmmaking" quite like being being handed an Oscar onstage in front of the whole world.
Now we are heralding the 85th annual Academy Awards with the recently released nominees list (courtesy of the official Oscars website). Let's hear it for these nominees!
Best Picture:
1. Amour
2. Argo
3. Beasts of the Southern Wild
4. Django Unchained
5. Les Miserables
6. Life of Pi
7. Lincoln
8. Silver Linings Playbook
9. Zero Dark Thirty
Best Actor in a Leading Role:
1. Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
2. Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
3. Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
4. Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
5. Denzel Washington - Flight
Best Actress in a Leading Role:
1. Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
2. Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
3. Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
4. Quvenzhane Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
5. Naomi Watts - The Impossible
Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
1. Alan Arkin - Argo
2. Rober De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
4. Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
5. Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
1. Amy Adams - The Master
2. Sally Field - Lincoln
3. Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
4. Helen Hunt - The Sessions
5. Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook
Best Animated Feature Film:
1. Brave
2. Frankenweenie
3. ParaNorman
4. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
5. Wreck-It Ralph
Best Cinematography:
1. Seamus McGarvey - Anna Karenina
2. Robert Richardson - Django Unchained
3. Claudio Miranda - Life of Pi
4. Janusz Kaminski - Lincoln
5. Roger Deakins - Skyfall
Best Costume Design:
1. Jacqueline Durran - Anna Karenina
2. Paco Delgado - Les Miserables
3. Joanna Johnston - Lincoln
4. Eiko Ishioka - Mirror Mirror
5. Colleen Atwood - Snow White and the Huntsman
Best Director:
1. Michael Haneke - Amour
2. Behn Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. Ang Lee - Life of Pi
4. Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
5. David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Best Documentary Feature Film:
1. 5 Broken Cameras
2. The Gatekeepers
3. How to Survive a Plague
4. The Invisible War
5. Searching for Sugar Man
Best Documentary Short:
1. Inocente
2. Kings Point
3. Modays at Racine
4. Open Heart
5. Redemption
Best Film Editing:
1. William Goldenberg - Argo
2. Tim Squyres - Life of Pi
3. Michael Kahn - Lincoln
4. Jay Cassidy, Crispin Sruthers - Silver Linings Playbook
5. Dylan Tichenor, William Goldenberg - Zero Dark Thirty
Best Foreign Language Film:
1. Amour (Austria)
2. Kon-Tiki (Norway)
3. No (Chile)
4. A Royal Affair (Denmark)
5. War Witch (Canada)
Best Make-up and Hairstyling:
1. Howard Berger, Peter Montagna, Martin Samuel - Hitchcock
2. Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater, Tami Lane - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3. Lisa Westcott, Julie Dartnell - Les Miserables
Best Original Score:
1. Dario Marianelli - Anna Karenina
2. Alexandre Desplat - Argo
3. Mychael Danna - Life of Pi
4. John Williams - Lincoln
5. Thomas Newman - Skyfall
Best Original Song:
1. "Before My Time" - Chasing Ice
2. "Everybody Needs a Best Friend" - Ted
3. "Pi's Lullaby" - Life of Pi
4. "Skyfall" - Skyfall
5. "Suddenly" - Les Miserables
Best Production Design:
1. Anna Karenina
2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3. Les Miserables
4. Life of Pi
5. Lincoln
Best Animated Short Film:
1. Adam and Dog
2. Fresh Guacamole
3. Head Over Heels
4. Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"
5. Paperman
Best Live Action Short Film:
1. Asad
2. Buzkashi Boys
3. Curfew
4. Death of a Shadow
5. Henry
Best Sound Editing:
1. Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn - Argo
2. Wylie Stateman - Django Unchained
3. Eugene Geatry, Philip Stockton - Life of Pi
4. Per Hallberg, Karen Baker Landers - Skyfall
5. Paul N. J. Ottosson - Zero Dark Thirty
Best Sound Mixing:
1. Argo
2. Les Miserables
3. Life of Pi
4. Lincoln
5. Skyfall
Best Visual Effects:
1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2. Life of Pi
3. Marvel's The Avengers
4. Prometheus
5. Snow White and the Huntsman
Best Adapted Screenplay:
1. Chris Terrio - Argo
2. Lucy Alibar, Behn Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. David Magee - Life of Pi
4. Tony Kushner - Lincoln
5. David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Best Original Screenplay:
1. Michael Haneke - Amour
2. Quentin Tarantino - Django Unchained
3. John Gatins - Flight
4. Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola - Moonrise Kingdom
5. Mark Boal - Zero Dark Thirty
*whew*
And there we have it: the nominees in every category for the 2013 Academy Awards. There are a few interesting points in this list (mainly the fact that The Avengers was only nominated in one category and The Dark Knight Rises wasn't nominated at all), but the Academy usually has a good eye of what good filmmaking is (whether or not I disagree with some of their choices). Still, I think I'll have fun watching the Awards this year.
Speaking of that, if you would like to watch the Academy Awards live this year, tune into ABC on Sunday February 24th at 7:00 p.m. EST, 4 p.m. Pacific. Seth McFarlane will be hosting the 85th Annual Academy Awards this year, which should be very... interesting, to say the least.
If you're really into the Oscars, then you might want to download the official Oscars App from the App Store. You can get more information on that by clicking this link.
So what did you think of the nominees this year? Would you have picked those films for those categories, or do you think some were over-nominated and others were gyped?
P.S. I haven't forgotten about the Hobbit podcast review. There's been some stuff going on lately, so I just haven't gotten around to recording it. But it will be out ASAP. I promise.
- Edessa, signing off
