And the nominees are...

Best Picture:

12 Years a Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Nebraska

Philomena

The Wolf of Wall Street

How I Did: 8/9 (I had Blue Jasmine and Saving Mr. Banks, but not Dallas)

Not much to see here; all the front-runners made it.

Best Director:

12 Years a Slave: Steve McQueen

American Hustle: David O. Russell

Gravity: Alfonso Cuaron

Nebraska: Alexander Payne

The Wolf of Wall Street: Martin Scorsese

How I Did: 4/5 (Captain Phillips instead of Wolf)

I guess the Academy feels really bad about snubbing Marty for 30 years, because he knocked out two top contenders (Paul Greengrass and Spike Jonze) with such a divisive film.

Best Original Screenplay:

American Hustle: David O. Russell, Eric Warren Singer

Blue Jasmine: Woody Allen

Dallas Buyers Club: Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack

Her: Spike Jonze

Nebraska: Bob Nelson

How I Did: 4/5 (Inside Llewyn Davis instead of Dallas)

I suppose it’s nice to see some newcomers in place of the Coen brothers, who already have two writing wins under their collective belt.

Best Adapted Screenplay:  

12 Years a Slave: John Ridley

Before Midnight: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater

Captain Phillips: Billy Ray

Philomena: Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope

The Wolf of Wall Street: Terence Winter

How I Did: 4/5 (August: Osage County instead of Captain)

I still haven’t seen A:OC, the film or the play (which is especially shameful since I live on the home turf of this Steppenwolf Theatre original), so my disappointment for Tracy Letts is [so far] strictly a yay-Chicago thing.

Best Actress:

Amy Adams, American Hustle

Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock, Gravity

Judi Dench, Philomena

Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

How I did: 4/5 (Emma Thompson instead of Streep)

I am HUGELY disappointed for Emma Thompson, she was absolutely marvelous. I’m happy to see Amy Adams cracked the former-winners-only mold, but why couldn’t Meryl have been the one rotated out? I was hoping that winning her third statuette would have cured Oscar’s relentless obsession with her – at least for a few years – but no, it’s an 18^th nomination for her. She has as many career nominations as Dench, Blanchett, and Adams combined.

Best Actor:

Christian Bale, American Hustle

Bruce Dern, Nebraska

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave

Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

How I Did: 3/5 (I had Hanks and Redford instead of Bale and DiCaprio.)

Two long-shots unseated longtime Academy favorites. There are too many ill-informed articles floating around, touting DiCaprio as the favorite to win; in fact, his omission from the SAG nominations indicates a marked lack of support among his peers, and it’s a surprise he even made the list. (The Golden Globes are far more infatuated with him than the Oscars are; the Globes nominated him for Titanic, Catch Me If You Can, Revolutionary Road, J. Edgar, and Django Unchained, but Oscar did not for any of those films.)

Best Supporting Actress:

Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine

Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave

Julia Roberts, August: Osage County

June Squibb, Nebraska

How I Did: 4/5 (Oprah Winfrey instead of Hawkins)

Well, congrats to Sally Hawkins, who came so close to her first nod with Happy-Go-Lucky five years ago. I think Oprah’s career will be just fine.

Best 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

Last year, Silver Linings Playbook became the first film in 31 years to be nominated in all four acting categories. American Hustle duplicated that feat this year, and both those films had the same director. Pretty darned impressive. Super-nerdy fact: Barkhad Abdi has unseated F. Murray Abraham as the most alphabetically superior acting nominee in Oscar history.

So there are the winners for round one. Here’s a scorecard to keep track of how many of the nominated films you’ve seen (with their block size proportionate to the number of top-tier nominations.)