Nominations are in

Earlier this morning the 85th Academy Awards nominations were announced by host Seth MacFarlane and the lovely Emma Stone. Being a great amateur film critic I got up literally at the crack of dawn  to catch the nominees. There were quite a few surprises this morning.

• Best Director

One of the biggest snubs was in the Best Director category  As you are aware I predicted that both Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow were shoo-ins for this category. These two directors have been the frontrunners along with Steven Spielberg. I was completely floored that they did not pick up a nomination. The two directors that were nominated instead were Michael Haneke for Amour and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild. I am pleasantly pleased that Mr. Zeitlin was nominated. I always knew that Quentin Tarantino was a bit of a wild card but I was hopeful he would get a nod. David O.Russel got a well deserved nomination in this category for the darling Silver Linings Playbook.

• Best Supporting Actress

One of the biggest surprises in this category was Jacki Weaver picking up nomination for her part in Silver Linings Playbook. I did not even predict her for a wild card but I am extremely pleased that she picked up this nomination. I believe that this award really is between Sally Field and Anne Hathaway. The only reason that none of them would pick up this award is if Silver Linings Playbook does a sweep. It could happen.

• Best Supporting Actor

Leonardo Dicaprio was once again overlooked by the Academy. Which I find to be a complete shame because he was absolutely brilliant in Django Unchained. I am happy that Christoph Waltz got a nomination because he was my wild card.

• Best Actress

I did a great job at predicting the nominees in this category. My wild card pick Quvenzhane Wallis is the youngest nominee in this category. As of right now Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence are the frontrunners in this category. I would not count out Emmanuelle Riva either.

• Best Actor

The only category I had 100% accuracy.  Daniel Day-Lewis is the favorite in this category but I would not count out Denzel Washington and Bradley Cooper.

• Best Picture

I was happy to see the majority of my picks getting nominated this morning. The only one that failed to pick up a nomination was Moonrise Kingdom. The Best Foreign Film favorite Amour picked up the final nomination in this category. Sources are suggesting that it will be hard for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty to win in this category because they failed to pick up Best Director nods. If that is the case Lincoln is looking as the shoo-in but I wouldn't be surprised if Silver Linings Playbook wins instead.

• Overall

Besides the snubs in Best Director and Best Supporting Actor category I am pleased with the nominees this year. Lincoln leads the list of with 12 nominations followed by the beautiful Life of Pi with 11 nominations.