Lincoln Leads Oscar Noms With 12

Lincoln ruled at this morning's Academy Award nominations announcement, scoring nods in the Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay categories. In all, the Steven Spielberg drama leads with 12 nominations, the AP reports. Eight other Best Picture nominees were chosen: Life of Pi (which came in second with 11 nominations), Beasts of the Southern Wild, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables, Amour, Django Unchained, and Argo. At least three notable names were missing from the Best Director category: Ben Affleck for Argo, Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty, and Tom Hooper for Les Miserables. All three had been nominated for DGA Awards. Click for the complete list of nominees.

Seth MacFarlane helped announce this year's nominees, marking the first time since 1972 that an Oscar host has done so, USA Today reports. He joked that the 5:30am Pacific live announcements should be held at noon, since the only people awake at this hour "are either flying or having surgery." But he's probably glad he showed up, since he himself was nominated in the Best Original Song category for Ted. The Oscars air Feb. 24 at 7pm Eastern on ABC. In other awards show news, click to see highlights from last night's People's Choice Awards. (More Oscars stories.)