The nominees for the 85th Oscars ceremony were announced earlier and The Daily Shift’s Eoghan Dalton has the latest on the announcement…

The nominations for this year’s Oscars ceremony were announced today by hosts Seth McFarlane and Emma Stone, with Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln leading the way with twelve nominations. Following Abraham Lincoln’s fight against slavery, star Daniel Day-Lewis is nominated for his role as honest Abe. Meanwhile, Beasts of the Southern Wild, the cheaply produced fantasy with a cast of unknowns, picked up several nominations; among these were nominations for Best Picture, Best  Director and shockingly, a Best Supporting Actress nod for nine year old Quvenzhané Wallis.

The film with the most nominations in the major categories is Silver Linings Playbook, a romantic drama starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro, all who have been nominated for acting awards. Meanwhile, director David O. Russel scooped a nod for the movie as well as Jacki Weaver for Best Supporting Actress.

Some quirks thrown up by the nominations include how all the Best Supporting Actor nominees have won an Oscar already; for instance, Philip Seymour Hoffman (who was put forward for his turn as a leader of a cult in The Master) won once before for his role as author Truman Capote in the 2005 biopic Capote. Whereas De Niro won in the 1970s for portraying a young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II.

Another point of interest is how amongst the Best Actress nominees, we have both the eldest and the youngest ever nominated for the award in the same year. The two women are the aforementioned Wallis as the youngest and Emmanuelle Riva for Amour, which shows an elderly couple grappling with illness. In fact, Amour is something of an anomaly considering it’s a foreign film. Not only has it found itself nominated for Best Foreign Film, but it’s also in the running for Best Picture and director Michael Haneke is up in the Best Director category too.

Hosts McFarlane (creator of Family Guy) and Stone (Zombieland) enjoyed some banter in preparation for the real thing next month; when McFarlane welcomed his co-host onto the stage he read from the prompter that she is the star of new release Gangster Squad, before joking ”I’m not sure if you’re the star, it’s more of an ensemble piece”. The comic was caught somewhat off guard though when he saw that his song ‘Everybody Needs a Best Friend’ (for his movie Ted) picked up a nomination for Best Original Song. However it is up against strong competition in pop singer Adele’s ‘Skyfall’ for the Bond film of the same name.

All of these awards will be settled on the 24 February in Los Angeles, California. The list of nominees are below.

Best Writing – Original Screenplay:

Amour, Michael Haneke

Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino

Flight, John Gatins

Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola

Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Writing – 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. Russel

Best Animated Feature:

Brave

Frankenweenie

ParaNorman

The Pirate! Band of Misfits

Wreck-It Ralph

Best Foreign language Film:

Amour

Kon-Tiki

No

A Royal Affair

War Witch

Best Supporting Actor:

Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

Alan Arkin, Argo

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Best Supporting Actress:

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Amy Adams, The Master

Best Director:

David O’Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Michael Haneke, Amour

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Actor:

Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln

Denzel Washington, Flight

Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Best Actress:

Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Picture:

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Lincoln

Les Miserables

Life of Pi

Amour

Django Unchained

Argo

*Lead image via movies.com