Lincoln Leads An Eclectic Bunch Of Films In The Nominations For The 2013 Oscars

The nominatees for the 2013 Oscars have just been announced in Hollywood by the delightful Emma Stone and February 24th's ceremony host Seth MacFarlane with the expected suspects: Lincoln (12 nominations), Life of Pi (11), Les Misérables (8), Silver Linings Playbook (8), and Argo (7) getting big recognition from the 6000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

With nine films up for Best Picture, the Academy managed to reward an eclectic bunch of films in the major categories whilst delivering no huge surprises besides art-house favourites Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild which took their places next to Argo, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Lincoln, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty in the running for the top prize.

Despite overlooking Quentin Tarantino and Kathryn Bigelow in the directing category, the Academy did manage to throw us a swing ball in giving low-budget festival hit Beast of the Southern Wild's Benh Zeitlin the nod alongside expected art-house entrant Michael Haneke, David O. Russell, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg.

QT did get recognised for his writing on Django Unchained which is more that we can say for Paul Thomas Anderson whose brilliant 2012 effort The Master was almost completely ignored except for performers Joaquin Phoenix (who lines up as slim favourite alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh Jackman, Denzel Washington and surprise nominee Bradley Cooper to compete for Best Actor), Philip Seymour Hoffman (sharing the Best Supporting Actor category with four other previous Oscar winners, Alan Arkin, Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones and Christoph Waltz) and Amy Adams.

Meanwhile, one of the most fascinating categories on the night looks set to be Best Actress, in which Naomi Watts, Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence compete with oldest ever nominee Emmanuelle Riva for Amour and youngest ever nominee Quvenzhané Wallis for Beasts of the Southern Wild.

As things stand February 24th could be one of the most exciting Oscar nights in living memory as no clear favourite has yet to emerge from awards season's earliest winners. Chances of that staying so are pretty low so stay tuned as we roll inexorably through the Globes and the BAFTAs all the way to the big night...

Check out the full list of nominees in all 24 categories here.