The Slatest

Nominations for the 85th annual Academy Awards were announced Thursday morning and the big winner was Lincoln, the film that looks at Abraham Lincoln’s efforts to abolish slavery, with 12 nods. Shipwreck story Life of Pi was the big surprise of the morning by coming in a close second, with 11 nominations. Among the celebrations, there were some in Hollywood who saw their Oscar dreams crushed. A few were big surprises, points out Deadline Hollywood’s Dominic Patten. Ben Affleck didn’t get a Best Director nor a Best Actor nod for Iran hostage crisis film Argo when many had seen him as a top contender for both awards.

Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win Best Director for The Hurt Locker, also didn’t get a nod for Zero Dark Thirty, even though the film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden was nominated for Best Picture. Many had predicted (hoped) Skyfall would get lots of attention at the Oscars this year, but alas seems that despite the critical acclaim, the Academy just isn’t ready to nominate a James Bond film in any of the top categories, although it did get cinematography, sound, and music nods. See Deadline’s full list of snubs here.

So, who is celebrating? Well, Steven Spielberg, the director of Lincoln definitely deserves some champagne with his breakfast. In all there were nine nominees for best picture: Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty. For a full list of all the nominees, head over to the official Oscar site that handily includes links to trailers of all the nominations.