US presidential drama Lincoln led the pack of Oscar nominees on Thursday with 12 nominations including a nod for best picture, in the race for the world's top film honours.
Joining Lincoln in the competition for the best movie Oscar were eight films — shipwreck tale Life of Pi with 11 nods, musical Les Miserables, Iran hostage drama Argo, French language drama Amour, Osama bin Laden thriller Zero Dark Thirty, comedy Silver Linings Playbook, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, and mythological film Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Daniel Day-Lewis and director Steven Spielberg at the closing night Gala Screening of 'Lincoln'. Pic/AFP
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The winners will be named at a ceremony in Hollywood on February 26. Best acting nominations went to Daniel Day-Lewis (in pic) for his performance as US President Abraham Lincoln, Hugh Jackman for Les Miserables, Jessica Chastain for her role as a CIA agent in Zero Dark Thirty and Jennifer Lawrence for playing a young widow in Silver Linings Playbook.
In a list with few major surprises, Lincoln also picked up nods for director Steven Spielberg (in pic), and supporting actors Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones, as well as best adapted screenplay and costumes.
James Bond film Skyfall won five nominations, including best original song and cinematography, but the British secret agent movie missed out on a coveted best picture mention.
Les Mis got eight nominations, including best supporting actress for Anne Hathaway as tragic heroine Fantine.u00a0But director Tom Hooper was left off the directing nominees, along with Ben Affleck for Argo and Tarantino for his violent slavery era Western Django Unchained.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Quvenzhane Wallis (9), became the youngest ever best actress Oscar nominee for her performance in the end of the world movie Beasts of the Southern Wild, which also garnered a nod for its first time director Benh Zeitlin.u00a0
Indian connection
And while the whole world is abuzz about the nominations, India has its own reason to smile. Pi’s Lullaby, with lyrics by Indian singer Bombay Jayashri, is up for Best Original Song. Mychael Danna’s composition received a nomination for Best Original Score. Describing how the song originated and the creative experience, she wrote on her blog, “A child sleeps not because he is sleepy, but because he feels safe.
These were the initial words of Director Ang Lee, when he was explaining to me what he wanted to hear in the Lullaby which opens and brings down the curtain of the movie Life Of Pi.” She added, “Working with Mychael Danna and Ang lee taught me so many things, makes me so grateful for the learning, so much I forget to thank my stars that I am part of this historical movie.”
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