The nominations for the 86th Academy Awards have been announced, and leading the pack are **American Hustle **and 12 Years A Slave, with seven and six nominations respectively in the major categories. Overall, American Hustle and Gravity both had ten nominations in total (most of Gravity's are in the technical categories), while **12 Years A Slave **is close behind with nine.
Nebraska and **Captain Phillips **follow with six nods, with The Wolf Of Wall Street, Her and Dallas Buyers Club each on five. Philomena had four, while Blue Jasmine and The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug each picked up three (the latter all technical).
The Best Picture nominees are American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity, Her, Nebraska, Philomena, 12 Years A Slave and The Wolf Of Wall Street. The big story there is probably the scant love for **Inside Llewyn Davis **(perhaps it's thematic, given that his whole life seems to be about rejection), which was roundly snubbed, while early contenders like Rush, Fruitvale Station and **Saving Mr. Banks **also missed out on a place.
Director nominees were, unsurprisingly, taken from among the ranks of the Best Picture nominees: David O. Russell for American Hustle, Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity, Alexander Payne for Nebraska, Steve McQueen for 12 Years A Slave and Martin Scorsese for The Wolf Of Wall Street. Generally speaking, Best Picture winners also have a nominee in this category, so this suggests that these are the five frontrunners there. Looking at the Best Editing nominees, traditionally a very strong indication of who's in the running for Best Picture, suggests that Gravity, American Hustle and 12 Years A Slave are - as common sense already suggests - the frontrunners, as they're the only three with nods in all those frequently linked categories.
Best Actor nominees are Christian Bale for American Hustle, Bruce Dern for Nebraska, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf Of Wall Street, Chiwetel Ejiofor for **12 Years A Slave **and Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club. There's only one former winner there - Christian Bale took Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter, which suggests that he should only ever work with David O. Russell if he wants awards. This list is bad news for, among others, Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips, Oscar Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis and Robert Redford for All Is Lost, but it's hard to argue much with the strength of the nominees.
Best Actress nods went to Amy Adams for American Hustle, Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, Sandra Bullock for Gravity, Judi Dench for **Philomena **and, as is traditional, Meryl Streep, this time for August: Osage County. All of those nominees are previous winners apart from Amy Adams, who's a four-time nominee in the Supporting category. Could this be her year? We suspect not, given Blanchett's current frontrunner status, but you never know. The biggest omission is undoubtedly Emma Thompson, who was wonderful in Saving Mr. Banks.
Best Supporting Actor nominees are Barkhad Abdi, Bradley Cooper, Michael Fassbender, Jonah Hill and Jared Leto. What does this tell us? Well, **American Hustle **has nods in all the major categories and all the acting categories, which bodes well for its chances. Also, isn't it great to see a complete newcomer, the star of The Hangover, a mutant, a guy best known (still) for comedy and the former Jordan Catalano all competing for Best Supporting Actor?
Best Supporting Acturess nominess are Sally Hawkins, Jennifer Lawrence, Lupita Nyong'o, Julia Roberts and June Squibb. That's another eccentric selection, mixing two former Best Actress winners with a first-time film star, a seasoned veteran and a beloved scene-stealer.
Adapted Screenplay nods went to Before Midnight, Captain Phillips, Philomena, 12 Years A Slave and The Wolf Of Wall Street. If you're wondering how Before Midnight counts as an adaptation, it is of course based on the trio's previously existing characters. Original Screenplay lines up American Hustle, Blue Jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club, **Her **and Nebraska - another strong line-up.
This year's Animated Film nominees are The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Ernest & Celestin****e, **Frozen **and The Wind Rises. From the number of nominees, you'll immediately notice that there were more than 15 eligible films this year (otherwise there would only be three nominees) and you're probably glad to see Miyazaki get some Academy love. Notable by its absence is **Monsters **University, with Pixar missing out on its semi-traditional spot.
Foreign Language nominees were The Broken Circle Breakdown, The Great Beauty, The Hunt, The MIssing Picture and Omar. Cannes favourite Blue Is The Warmest Colour apparently didn't qualify this year, hence (we suspect) its omission.
The Act Of Killing, Cutie And The Boxer, Dirty Wars, The Square and 20 Feet From Stardom were the nominees for Documentary Feature. **Killing **and **The Square **have undoubtedly had the most attention among that lot - but will it translate into a win?
Best Original Song nominees came from Alone Yet Not Alone, Despicable Me 2, **Frozen **(of course), **Her **and Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom. We think Frozen's Let It Go is probably the frontrunner there, but if there are enough U2 fans among the Academy voters (possible) we might see an upset.
In the technical categories, there were a few surprises. Thelma Schoonmaker missed out on an Editing nod for Wolf Of Wall Street; American Hustle's astonishing hair efforts were blanked in the Make-Up & Hairstyling cateory; Barry Ackroyd was unlucky to miss out on a Cinematography nod for Captain Phillips, as were Anthony Dod Mantle for Rush and Sean Bobbitt. In Visual Effects, we were vaguely surprised to note that the Academy nominated five films even though it would surely take some sort of Roland Emmerich-style cataclysm to stop that award at least going to Gravity.
This year's Oscars will take place on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre, and **Empire **will be covering them every step of the way. The full nominations are below.
OSCAR NOMINATIONS 2014
FILM
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Dallas Buyers Club
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf Of Wall Street
DIRECTOR
Steve McQueen - 12 Years A Slave
David O. Russell - American Hustle
Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity
Alexander Payne - Nebraska
Martin Scorsese - The Wolf Of Wall Street
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell - American Hustle
Woody Allen - Blue Jasmine
Bob Nelson - Nebraska
Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack - Dallas Buyers Club
Spike Jonze - Her
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
John Ridley - 12 Years A Slave
Billy Ray - Captain Phillips
Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope - Philomena
Terence Winter - The Wolf Of Wall Street
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater - Before Midnight
ACTOR
Bruce Dern - Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave
Christian Bale - American Hustle
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street
Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club
ACTRESS
Amy Adams - American Hustle
Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
Meryl Streep - August: Osage County
Judi Dench - Philomena
Sandra Bullock - Gravity
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper - American Hustle
Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill - The Wolf Of Wall Street
Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle
Julia Roberts - August: Osage County
Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave
Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine
June Squibb - Nebraska
ANIMATED FILM
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises
ORIGINAL SCORE
Philomena - Alexandre Desplat
The Book Thief - John Williams
Gravity - Steven Price
Saving Mr. Banks - Thomas Newman
Her - William Butler, Owen Pallett
**ORIGINAL SONG
**'Alone Yet Not Alone' - Alone Yet Not Alone
'Happy' - Despicable Me 2
'Let It Go' - Frozen
'The Moon Song' - Her
'Ordinary Love' - Mandela: The Long Walk To Freedom
CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Grandmaster - Philippe Le Sourd
Gravity - Emmanuel Lubezki
Inside Llewyn Davis - Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska - Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners - Roger Deakins
EDITING
American Hustle - Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, Alan Baumgarten
12 Years A Slave - Joe Walker
Captain Phillips - Christopher Rouse
Dallas Buyers Club - John Mac McMurphy, Martin Pensa
Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger
PRODUCTION DESIGN
12 Years A Slave - Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker
American Hustle - Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler
Her - K.K. Barrett, Gene Serdena
Gravity - Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woodlard
The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn
COSTUME DESIGN
American Hustle - Michael Wilkinson
The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin
The Invisible Woman - Michael O’Connor
The Grandmaster - William Chang Suk Ping
12 Years A Slave - Patricia Norris
MAKE-UP & HAIRSTYLING
Dallas Buyers Club - Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa - Stephen Prouty
The Lone Ranger - Joel Harlow, Gloria Pasqua-Casny
SOUND EDITING
All Is Lost - Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker
Captain Phillips - Oliver Tarney
Gravity - Glenn Freemantle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Brent Burge
Lone Survivor - Wylie Stateman
SOUND MIXING
Captain Phillips - Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro
Gravity - Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, Tony Johnson
Inside Llewyn Davis - Skip Lievsay, Greg orloff, Peter F. Kurland
Lone Survivor - Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, David Brownlow
VISUAL EFFECTS
Gravity - Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3 - Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick
Star Trek Into Darkness - Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton, Patrick Tubach, Roger Guyett
The Lone Ranger - Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams, John Frazier
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Broken Circle Breakdown - Belgium
The Great Beauty - Italy
The Hunt - Denmark
The Missing Picture - Cambodia
Omar - *Palestine
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Feral
Get A Horse!
Mr. Hublot
Possessions
Room On The Broom
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Act Of Killing
Cutie And The Boxer
Dirty Wars
The Square
20 Feet From Stardom
**DOCUMENTARY SHORT
**Cavedigger
Facing Fear
Karama Has No Walls
The Lady In Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Prison Terminal: The Last Days Of Private Jack Hall***
LIVE ACTION SHORT
Aquel No Era Yo
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)
Helium
Pitaako Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have To Take Care Of Everything?)
The Voorman Problem