Oscars 2013: Shocks, snubs and surprises

Clockwise from top left: Ben Affleck on the set of Argo; Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained; Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; a scene from Zero Dark Thirty featuring Jessica Chastain

Argo, Django, Zero, Bilbo. The films in contention for this year's Academy Awards are an eclectic bunch that run the gamut from serious historical dramatisation to spectacular fantasy adventure.

Small wonder, then, that the list of nominations announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday is a study in dramatic and rather bewildering contrasts.

It is no surprise to see Lincoln, Steven Spielberg's hefty eulogy to one of America's greatest statesmen, lead the field with 12 nominations.

Yet snapping at its heels with 11 nods is Life of Pi, a magical realist fable based on a celebrated novel about a boy and a tiger reluctantly sharing a lifeboat.

In the best actress category, an 85-year-old veteran of French cinema - Emmanuelle Riva, of Hiroshima Mon Amour fame - finds herself rubbing shoulders with a nine-year-old so fresh-faced even the term newcomer seems excessive.

Haneke's Amour and Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild are among nine films up for best picture

In the best director category, meanwhile, Benh Zeiltin, a New York rookie with just one feature under his belt sits alongside Michael Haneke, a powerhouse of European arthouse cinema with a reputation as formidable as his often austere demeanour.

What can we deduce from this? Perhaps that the Academy's 6,000-strong membership have more diverse and varied tastes than they are often given credit for.

Sure, they are not above saluting the tried and true. In the best supporting actor category, for example, there is not one candidate who has not one or more Oscars already adorning their mantelpiece.

On this evidence, though, the narrow-minded conservatism that seemed to characterise previous generations of voters has been replaced, for now at least, by a more embracing, inquisitive outlook.

Time will tell if this is a flash in the pan or a lasting trend. At the very least, though, the list of nominees makes for interesting and intriguing reading.

Oscar hopefuls tend to fall into two camps at this time of year. You have your darlings, and then you have your orphans.

Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin's low-budget indie about a little girl from Louisiana whose pluck helps her survive a devastating Delta disaster, is unquestionably one of the former.

Naomi Watts (l) was previously up for best actress for 2003's 21 Grams

Much of its success lies in the enchanting Quvenzhane Wallis, a captivating presence who, despite being five when she auditioned, gives a performance older and wiser than her tender years.

Yet its boldly expressionistic take on a natural calamity, evidently inspired by the destruction wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, clearly struck a more resonant chord than The Impossible, a superficially similar yet dramatically more conventional treatment of the Asian tsunami that occurred the previous year.

The Impossible does receive one nomination for Naomi Watts, whose portrayal of a mother caught in the teeth of a tidal wave proves the Academy admires an actress who suffers for her art.

No amount of physical discomfort, though, could land Sir Anthony Hopkins a berth in the best actor category for his prosthetically aided portrayal of Hitchcock's titular director.

Dame Helen Mirren might also count herself a little hard done-by not to be shortlisted for her role as Hitch's loyal and long-suffering wife Alma Reville in Sacha Gervasi's depiction of the making of Psycho.

But at least she is in good company, the Academy also snubbing fellow dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith for their work in Skyfall and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel respectively.

Neither Dame Helen Mirren nor Sir Anthony Hopkins made the cut for their work in Hitchcock

Another Briton who may be feeling somewhat unloved is Tom Hooper, left out of the best director category despite managing to bring long-running stage musical Les Miserables to the big screen.

Yet at least he will have the satisfaction of seeing his colleague Anne Hathaway win this year's best supporting actress prize - surely the surest sure thing ever in the 84-year history of Hollywood's annual back-slapping gala.

But what of Bilbo Baggins, we hear you cry? What has he done to be mentioned in the same breath as Ben Affleck's Argo, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained and Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty?

To be honest, not much. But his hirsute feet and pointy ears did at least help earn The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey a nod for best make-up and hairstyling.

And with two more Hobbit instalments still to come, there may yet be Oscar glory for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy.

Full List of Nominees

Best Film

• Amour
• Argo
• Beasts Of The Southern Wild
• Django Unchained
• Les Miserables
• Lincoln
• Life Of Pi
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

Best actress

• Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
• Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
• Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
• Quvenzhane Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Naomi Watts - The Impossible

Best actor

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

Best director

• Michael Haneke - Amour
• Ang Lee - Life of Pi
• David O Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
• Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
• Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best supporting actor

• Alan Arkin - Argo
• Robert De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook
• Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln
• Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
• Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master

Best supporting actress

• Amy Adams - The Master
• Sally Field - Lincoln
• Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
• Helen Hunt - The Sessions
• Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook

Best foreign film

• Amour
• No
• War witch
• A Royal Affair
• Kon-Tiki

Best animated film

• Brave
• Frankenweenie
• Paranorman
• Pirates! Band of Misfits (UK title: Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists)
• Wreck-it Ralph

Best documentary film

• 5 Broken Cameras
• The Gatekeepers
• How To Survive A Plague
• The Invisible War
• Searching For Sugarman

Music (original song)

• Before My Time (Chasing Ice) - Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
• Everybody Needs A Best Friend (Ted) - Music by Walter Murphy, Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
• Pi's lullaby (Life Of Pi) - Music by Mychael Danna, Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
• Skyfall (Skyfall) - Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
• Suddenly (Les Miserables) - Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Music (original score)

• Anna Karenina - Dario Marianelli
• Argo - Alexandre Desplat
• Life Of Pi - Mychael Danna
• Lincoln - John Williams
• Skyfall - Thomas Newman

Adapted screenplay

• Argo - Chris Terrio
• Beasts Of The Southern Wild - Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin
• Life Of Pi - David Magee
• Lincoln - Tony Kushner
• Silver Linings Playbook - David O Russell

Original screenplay

• Amour - Michael Haneke
• Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino
• Flight - John Gatins
• Moonrise Kingdom - Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
• Zero Dark Thirty - Mark Boal

Cinematography

• Anna Karenina - Seamus McGarvey
• Django Unchained - Robert Richardson
• Life of Pi - Claudio Miranda
• Lincoln - Janusz Kaminski
• Skyfall - Roger Deakins

Costume Design

• Anna Karenina - Jacqueline Durran
• Les Miserables - Paco Delgado
• Lincoln - Joanna Johnston
• Mirror Mirror - Eiko Ishioka
• Snow White and the Huntsman - Colleen Atwood

Best documentary short subject

• Inocente
• Kings Point
• Mondays at Racine
• Open Heart
• Redemption

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

Make-up and Hairstyling

• Hitchcock - Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
• Les Miserables - Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Production Design

• Anna Karenina - Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
• Les Miserables - Eve Stewart and Anna Lynch-Robinson
• Life Of Pi - David Gropman and Anna Pinnock
• Lincoln - Rick Carter and Jim Erickson

Short film (animated)

• Adam and the Dog
• Fresh Guacamole
• Head Over Heels
• Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare
• Paperman

Short film (live action)

• Asad
• Buzkashi Boys
• Curfew
• Death of a Shadow (Dood Van Een Schaduw)
• Henry

Sound editing

• Argo - Erik Aadahl and Ethan van der Ryn
• Django Unchained - Wylie Stateman
• Life Of Pi - Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
• Skyfall - Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
• Zero Dark Thirty - Paul NJ Ottosson

Sound mixing

• Argo - John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
• Les Miserables - Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
• Life Of Pi - Ron Bartlett, DM Hemphill and Drew Kunin
• Lincoln - Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
• Skyfall - Scott Millan, Greg P Russell and Stuart Wilson

Visual effects

• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R Christopher White
• Life Of Pi - Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R Elliott
• Marvel's The Avengers (UK title: Marvel's Avengers Assemble) - Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
• Prometheus - Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
• Snow White and the Huntsman - Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson