Another year, another announcement for the Oscar nominations and once again, there are plenty of pleasing surprises and shocking omissions!

Leading the pack is the upcoming historical biopic Lincoln which secured twelve mentions including Best Picture, Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones) and Best Supporting Actress (Sally Field).

Fantasy adventure Life of Pi was second with eleven nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee) and a host of technical nods. Joint third were musical extravaganza Les Misérables and romantic dramedy Silver Linings Playbook with eight nominations each including Best Picture. The former also received acting recognition for Best Actor (Hugh Jackman) and Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway) though director Tom Hooper was snubbed. The latter received nods in all four acting categories including Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), and a welcome-back nod in Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro).

As expected, political thrillers Argo and Zero Dark Thirty also earned mutiple nominations including Best Picture along with Austrian drama Amour, indie-drama Beasts of the Southern Wild and violent western Django Unchained. However a rather shocking predicament saw respective helmers Ben Affleck (Argo) AND Kathryn Bigelow (ZD30) get ignored in the Best Director category despite their dominance over awards season. French film-maker Michael Haneke (Amour) and newcomer Benh Zeitlin (Beasts) were nodded instead along with David O. Russell (Silver Linings).

Competing with Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor is Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings), Hugh Jackman (Les Mis), Denzil Washington for Flight and Joaquin Phoenix for The Master (despite his critical comments about the awards). John Hawkes was the surprise snub for The Sessions.

The talented duo of Jessica Chastain (ZD30) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings) go head-to-head in Best Actress with Naomi Watts earning her second nomination for the badly-ignored The Impossible. History was also made in this category as 86 year-old veteran Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) became the oldest acting nominee with 9 year-old Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts) also being the youngest acting nominee. Despite getting mentioned at nearly every critic awards group, Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone) and Helen Mirren (Hitchcock) failed to get noticed.

Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln) is up against Alan Arkin (Argo), Robert De Niro (Silver Linings), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master) and Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) in Best Supporting Actor which contains five previous winners. Waltz’s co-star Leonardo DiCaprio failed to make the cut along with Javier Bardem for Skyfall. In Supporting Actress, Anne Hathaway (Les Mis) squares up against Amy Adams (The Master), Sally Field (Lincoln), Helen Hunt (The Sessions) and shock nominee Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings).

In Best Animated Film, Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie goes up against Pixar’s Brave, Paranorman, Wreck-It-Ralph and British animation The Pirates! Band of Misfits (they love Aardman’s work!).

British success comes not just for Les Mis, Daniel Day-Lewis and Pirates but also for Adele who scored a Best Song nomination for her rendition of ‘Skyfall’. The 007-blockbuster secured five mentions altogether.

Oscar-host Seth MacFarlane (who announced the nominations with Emma Stone) also nabbed a Best Song mention for the lyrics-writing of ‘Everybody Needs a Friend’ from his box-office hit comedy Ted.

Perhaps the biggest film snubbed by the Academy was the concluding superhero-blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises which was completely overlooked along with British-dramedy The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, fantasy epic Cloud Atlas and western-thriller Lawless.

The full-list of nominations are below (with my winner predictions in yellow):

BEST PICTURE

• Amour
• Argo
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Django Unchained
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

BEST DIRECTOR

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

BEST ACTOR

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

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 SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Alan Arkin – Argo
• Robert De Niro – 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 Misérables
• Helen Hunt – The Sessions
• Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

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

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• Chris Terrio – Argo
• Benh Zeitlin & Lucy Alibar – Beasts of the Southern Wild
• David Magee – Life of Pi
• Tony Kushner – Lincoln
• David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook

PRODUCTION DESIGN

• Anna Karenina
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Les Misérables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Anna Karenina
• Django Unchained
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Skyfall

COSTUME DESIGN

• Anna Karenina
• Les Misérables
• Lincoln
• Mirror Mirror
• Snow White and the Huntsman

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

• Hitchcock
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Les Misérables

BEST EDITING

• Argo
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty