2012 Oscar Nominees

The nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards were announced today, and while they did a few things right, there are numerous snubs that need to be addressed. I understand that the past year was a great year in film and making these decisions is very tough, but it's might right to undermine the Academy's choices. But first, the nominees: 

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Full list of nominees, snubs, and analysis after the jump.


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

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Rivera, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

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

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

Best Animated Feature Film
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Mirror Mirror
Snow White and the Huntsman

Best Director
Michael Haneke, Amour
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Stephen Spielberg, Lincoln
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Documentary

5 Broken Cameras

The Gatekeepers

How to Survive a Plague

The Invisible War

Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short

Inocente

Kings Point

Mondays at Racine

Open Heart

Redemption

Best Film Editing

Argo

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Best Foreign Language Film

Amour (Austria)

Rebelle (Canada)

No (Chile)

En kongelig affære (Denmark)

Kon-Tiki (Norway)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Hitchcock

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Les Misérables

Best Original Score

Anna Karenina

Argo

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Skyfall

Best Original Song

"Before My Time", Chasing Ice

"Suddenly", Les Misérables

"Pi's Lullaby", Life of Pi

"Skyfall", Skyfall

"Everybody Needs a Best Friend", Ted

Best Production Design

Anna Karenina

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Best Animated Short Film

Adam and Dog

Fresh Guacamole

Head Over Heels

Paperman

The Simpsons: The Longest Daycare

Best Live Action Short Film

Asad

Buzkashi Boys

Curfew

Dood van een Schaduw

Henry

Best Sound Editing

Argo

Django Unchained

Life of Pi

Skyfall

Zero Dark Thirty

Best Sound Mixing

Argo

Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Skyfall

Best Visual Effects

The Avengers
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Life of Pi

Prometheus

Snow White and the Huntsman

Best Adapted Screenplay

Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Best Original Screenplay

Amour

Django Unchained

Fight

Moonrise Kingdom

Zero Dark Thirty

Notable snubs:

Best Picture

Cloud Atlas

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Master

Moonrise Kingdom

(Snubs in this category irritated me most, because with only 9 nominations there is room for one more)

Best Director

Ben Affleck, Argo

Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom

Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises

Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Best Supporting Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained

Javier Bardem, Skyfall

Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike

James Spader, Lincoln

Best Original Screenplay

The Master

Looper

Best Actor

John Hawkes, The Sessions

Best Cinematography

The Master

Best Foreign Language Film

The Intouchables

Best Documentary

Bully

Best Original Song

"Ancora Qui", Django Unchained

"Learn Me Right", Brave

Best Visual Effects

Cloud Atlas

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Cloud Atlas (get Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman out of here)

Things I particularly like about the nominations:

Django Unchained for Best Picture

Joaquin Phoenix for Best Actor (despite calling the Oscars "bullshit")

Quvenzhane Wallis for Best Actress (at 9 years old is the youngest Best Actress nominee ever)

Tommy Lee Jones for Best Supporting Actor

Sally Field for Best Supporting Actress

Searching for Sugar Man for Best Documentary

Analysis:

No movie has won Best Picture without winning Best Director since Driving Miss Daisy in 1989, so with Affleck's directing snub, odds are either Life of Pi or Lincoln will take home the big prize. 

For some reason, the Academy loved Silver Linings Playbook, the first film to be nominated in all four acting categories since Reds in 1981.

The directing nominees are just horrible, aside from Ang Lee and Stephen Spielberg. There's a list of five or six other directors who could have been nominated, and should have been nominated.

Lincoln leads the field with 12 nominations, followed closely by Life or Pi with 11. It's looking more and more like Lincoln will take the big prize, even after I wrote it off in my review. I guess the combination of subject matter, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Stephen Spielberg was too much Oscar bait for the Academy not to award.