This morning’s Academy Award nominations produced a clear front-runner in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” which placed in 12 categories. They also anointed two films, Michael Haneke’s “Amour” and first-time feature director Behn Zeitlin’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” that remind us that Oscar-voters are receptive to challenging non-mainstream fare. Read the full article here

Tags: Amour, Anne Hathaway, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Behn Zeitlin, Ben Affleck, Bradley Cooper, Daniel Day-Lewis, David O. Russell, Django Unchained, Emmanuelle Riva, Graham Fuller, Hugh Jackman, Jacki Weaver, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Kathryn Bigelow, Les Misérables, Lincoln, Michael Haneke, Quentin Tarantino, Quvenzhané Wallis, Robert De Niro, Sally Field, Steven Spielberg, The Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty