The nominees for the 85th annual Academy Awards were announced this morning. Lincoln and Life of Pi topped the list, with 12 and 11 nominations, respectively. The 14 feature-length genre films with nominations this year beats last year’s number by one, and the total number of nominations (38) is four more than last year, but that includes the L. Ron Hubbard-biopic knock-off The Master; without it, the numbers are the same last year and this.
Once again, there are nine nominees for Best Picture, and once again, only two of them fall into the wider sf/f/h realm, with neither of them promoted as such at the box office: Argo and Life of Pi.
Nominees of genre interest include:
Argo: Best Picture; Actor in a Supporting Role (Alan Arkin); Film Editing; Music (Original Score); Sound Editing; Sound Mixing; Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The Avengers: Visual Effects
Brave: Animated Feature Film
Frankenweenie: Animated Feature Film
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Makeup and Hairstyling; Production Design; Visual Effects
Life of Pi: Best Picture; Cinematography; Directing; Film Editing; Music (Original Score); Music (Original Song: “Pi’s Lullaby”); Production Design; Sound Editing; Sound Mixing; Visual Effects; Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The Master:: Actor in a Leading Role (Joaquin Phoenix); Actor in a Supporting Role (Philip Seymour Hoffman); Actress in a Supporting Role (Amy Adams)
ParaNorman: Animated Feature Film
The Pirates! Band of Misfits: Animated Feature Film
Prometheus: Visual Effects
Skyfall: Cinematography; Music (Original Score); Music (Original Song: “Skyfall”); Sound Editing; Sound Mixing
Snow White and the Huntsman: Costume Design; Visual Effects
Ted: Music (Original Song: “Everybody Needs a Best Friend”)
Wreck-It Ralph: Animated Feature Film
The full list of nominees is on this page. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -— the organization which gives out the Oscars — has announced that Seth MacFarlane will host the award show on Sunday 24 February at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, and that it will be televised live on ABC.
They’ve also announced a special tribute at the ceremony, celebrating 50 years of James Bond films. The long-running franchise had received two Academy Awards (for Goldfinger [1964] and Thunderball [1965] from seven previous nominations (mostly song and effects, the last one for For Your Eyes Only [1981]). The greatest number of nominations earned by any previous James Bond film was three for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
To compare this list with last year’s, see this article.
