Oscar nominations 2013: 'Lincoln' leads the way to the The Academy Awards

Seth McFarlane and Emma Stone were up bright and early this morning at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California to announce the nominees for the 85th Annual Academy Awards.

Leading the way this year was "Lincoln" with 12 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Supporting Actor and Actress (Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field, respectively).

Having expanded how many nominations they allow in the Best Picture category a few years back, that category was filled with nine films this year (with a maximum allowed of 10): Joining Lincoln in the Best Picture category are: "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Silver Linings Playbook," "Zero Dark Thirty," "Lincoln," "Les Miserables," "Life of Pi," "Amour," "Django Unchained" and "Argo."

Joining Daniel Day-Lewis in the Best Actor category was Denzel Washington for "Flight," Hugh Jackman for "Les Miserables," Bradley Cooper for "Silver Linings Playbook" and Joaquin Phoenix for "The Master."

For Best Actress, Emmanuelle Riva became the oldest nominee in the category ever, for her role in "Amour." Ironically, this category also features the youngest nominee ever, Quvenzhane Wallis, for her performance in "Beasts of the Southern Wild." They are joined by Naomi Watts for "The Impossible," Jessica Chastain for "Zero Dark Thirty" and Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook."

The biggest snubs of all had to be in the category of Best Director. Ben Affleck seemed a shoe-in for "Argo," which ended up nabbing seven nominations but not for Best Director. Also snubbed in the category were Quentin Tarantino for "Django Unchained" (also nominated for Best Picture but not for Director), Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper for "Les Miserables." So who got nominated? Along with Spielberg for "Lincoln," Benh Zeitlin got a surprise (but much-deserved) nomination for "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Ang Lee for "Life of Pi," David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook" and Michael Haneke for "Amour."

Other snubs? How about no John Hawkes for Best Actor in "The Sessions," or no "Moonrise Kingdom" for Best Picture (although "Moonrise did nab a Screenplay nomination).

Click here for the full list of 2013 Oscar nominations. Be sure to check back or subscribe (above) to this column for all of the latest movie reviews and news, including complete Oscar coverage beginning...now!

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