Refreshing Oscar nominations

Here they are! Finally the nominations for this year's Oscars  are there, a few positive surprises as well. Of course, the nomination for Janusz Kaminski, for best cinematography is always good news, but the Academy has made some unobvious choices, like nominating "Beasts of the Southern Wild" for Best Picture, directing, and best female act, of the tiny Quvenzhané Wallis. Too bad, " Moonrise Kingdom" was not nominated for more awards, let's hope Wes Anderson at least gets best screenplay. Absolutely well deserved. I have a feeling that nominating "Amour" so many times is the expression of cherishing older generations rather than the film itself. Don't get me wrong. It was a  very good movie, but totally and absolutely not an "Oscar" one. Maybe for Best Foreign Picture. Though I'd vote for "The Royal Affair." By the nominations I put marks, where I think the person or movie will or should win, and the marks are of course very subjective. Sometimes I'm sure the movie won't get it, but I nevertheless mark it. How do I know such things? It's just over the years, the Academy has shown, that not always best films win, and that's that. But so far, this year it is actually a good set of nominees...
Full list of nominees available here, in The Guardian, or on the official webpage.

(Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane reading the nominees)


BEST PICTURE
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln [x] (haven't seen Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty, this category is a mystery)
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbok
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln [x]
Hugh Jackman - Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
Denzel Washington - Flight

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Alan Arkin - Argo [x]
Robert de Niro - Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty [x]
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva  - Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts - The Impossible

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTIG ROLE
Amy Adams - The Master
Sally Field - Lincoln
Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables
Helen Hunt - The Sessions [x]
Jacki Weaver  - Silver Linings Playbook

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Brave [x]
Frankenweenie                                                           
Paranorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-it Ralph

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Anna Karenina - Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained - Robert Richardson
Life of Pi - Claudio Miranda
Lincoln - Janusz Kaminski [x] or Roger Deakins
Skyfall - Roger Deakins

COSTUME DESIGN
Anna Karenina - Jacqueline Durran [x]
Les Misérbles - Paco Delgado
Lincoln - Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror - Eiko Ishioka
Snow White And The Huntsman - Colleen Atwood

DIRECTING
Amour - Michael Haneke [x] or Russell
Beasts of the Southern Wild - Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi - Ang Lee
Lincoln - Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook - David O. Russell

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
5 Broken Cameras - Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague [x]
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Inocente - Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point - Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays At Racine - Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart - Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
Redemption - Jon Alpert and Matthew o’Neill

FILM EDITING
Argo - William Goldenberg
Life of Pi - Tim Squyres
Lincoln - Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook - Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty - Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg [x]

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Amour - Austria
Kon-tiki - Norway
No - Chile
A Royal Affair - Denmark [x]
War Witch - Canada

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Hitchcock - Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane [x]
Les Misérables - Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Anna Karenina - Dario Marianelli
Argo - Alexandre Desplat [x] or Newman, maybe even better
Life of Pi - Mychael Danna
Lincoln - John Williams
Skyfall - Thomas Newman

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
Before my time - Chasing ice, Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
Everybody Needs A Best Friend - TED, Music by Walter Murphy, Lyrics by Seth MacFarlane
Pi’s Lullaby - Life of Pi, Music by Mychael Danna, Lyrics by Bombay Jayashri
Skyfall - Skyfall, Music and Lyrics by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth [x]
Suddenly - Les Misérables, Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer

WRITING
(ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
Argo - Screenplay by Chris Terrio [x]
Beasts of the Southern Wild - Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi - Screenplay by David Magee
Lincoln - Screenplay by Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook - Screenplay by David o. Russell

WRITING
(ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Amour Written by Michael Haneke
Django Unchained Written by Quentin Tarantino
Flight Written by John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola [x]
Zero Dark Thirty Written by Mark Boal

The films that got most nominations are:

Lincoln: 12
Life of Pi - 11
Silver Linings Playbook - 8
Argo - 7
Les Miserbles - 7
Skyfall - 5
Zero Dark Thirty - 5
Django Unchained - 5
Amour - 5
Anna Karenina - 4