There were a number of pleasing surprises and shocking omissions for Oscar fanatics to take in as the Academy unveiled their list of nominations for 2013.

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 multiple 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. Austrian filmmaker 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), Denzel 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 Quvenzhané 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 the British comedy-drama The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the fantasy epic Cloud Atlas and the 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
Ang Lee, LIFE OF PI
David O. Russell, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Steven Spielberg, LINCOLN
Benh Zeitlin, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain, ZERO DARK THIRTY
Jennifer Lawrence, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Emmanuelle Riva, AMOUR
Quvenzhané Wallis, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Naomi Watts, THE IMPOSSIBLE

BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Daniel Day-Lewis, LINCOLN
Hugh Jackman, LES MISÉRABLES
Joaquin Phoenix, THE MASTER
Denzel Washington, FLIGHT

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, THE MASTER
Sally Field, LINCOLN
Anne Hathaway, LES MISÉRABLES
Helen Hunt, THE SESSIONS
Jacki Weaver, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

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

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
ARGO (Chris Terrio)
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (Benh Zeitlin & Lucy Alibar)
LIFE OF PI (David Magee)
LINCOLN (Tony Kushner)
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (David O. Russell)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
AMOUR (Michael Haneke)
DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)
FLIGHT (John Gatins)
MOONRISE KINGDOM (Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola)
ZERO DARK THIRTY (Mark Boal)

BEST EDITING
ARGO
LIFE OF PI
LINCOLN
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
ZERO DARK THIRTY

CINEMATOGRAPHY
ANNA KARENINA
DJANGO UNCHAINED
LIFE OF PI
LINCOLN
SKYFALL

PRODUCTION DESIGN
ANNA KARENINA
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
LES MISÉRABLES
LIFE OF PI
LINCOLN

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

SOUND MIXING
ARGO
LES MISÉRABLES
LIFE OF PI
LINCOLN
SKYFALL