Academy Awards Nominees for 2013

They gush and smile as they sashay down the red carpet in yet another fashion piece. If they win, they thank their agent, their director and sometimes their mother. But everyone knows the stars have their eyes on the BIG ONE. And by the big one I mean the Academy Awards celebration on Sunday Feb. 24 where celebrities vie for the honor of taking home the coveted golden statute.

While Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Lining Playbook) have already collected a lot of hardware during this awards season, the winners of the 2013 Academy Awards are yet to be revealed. (Print out a ballot and host your own event if you haven’t received an official invite to the event.)

While Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) is a newcomer to the big screen, most of the other nominees come with impressive resumes. Actress Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) also earned a nomination for her role in The Help. Some of her recent film credits include Mama and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. Jessica Lawrence made a name for herself as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games but she has also starred in X-Men: First Class and House at the End of the Street. Born in France, Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) is best known in foreign film circles, but Australian actress Naomi Watts (The Impossible) is familiar to North America audiences who have seen Fair Game, The Ring and The Ring Two.

In the race for Best Actor, the nominees include a wealth of experience. One of Daniel Day-Lewis’ early movie appearances was in the bio pic Gandhi. In 2009, he played world famous film director Guido Contini in Nine. Denzel Washington’s sixth Oscar nomination comes for his role in Flight. His has already won for his roles in Training Day and Glory. He also earned nomination nods for The Hurricane, Malcolm X and Cry Freedom. Les Miserables is Hugh Jackman’s first Academy Award nomination. One of his more notable roles may be as Wolverine in the X-Men movies. He also voiced a brusque Easter Bunny in Rise of the Guardians. Bradley Cooper’s leading man role in Silver Linings Playbook follows up appearances in movies like The Words, Valentine’s Day and Yes Man. Along with his nomination for his role in The Master, Joaquin Phoenix showed up on Oscar ballots for his parts in Walk the Line and Gladiator. He and John Travolta play firemen in the movie Ladder 49.

More details about the movies mentioned in this post…