The nominations for the 85th Academy Awards were announced today, and to call this year’s lineup diverse would be an understatement. Academy voters selected an impressive range of films that will be in competition on Oscar night, including a presidential biopic, a popular musical adaptation, a pair of gritty political thrillers, and even a subversive period piece from director Quentin Tarantino.

These selected works reflect the talent of thousands of artists both on screen and off, and we’re proud to see so many Full Sail graduates involved with the year’s nominated projects – including five of the nine films up for Best Picture.

Among these is Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, which garnered 12 nominations, the most of any project. Daniel Day-Lewis received a nod for his performance as the iconic president, and Film program graduates Joe Badiali (2009) and Bryan Reynolds (1994) helped with his transformation as special makeup effects technician and additional makeup artist, respectively.

The ambitious book adaptation Life of Pi joins Lincoln in the Best Picture category, and is nominated for nine total awards. Seeing the film on the big screen was a visual marvel, and those images were singled out with nominations in categories like Cinematography, Production Design, and Visual Effects. Helping to create its distinctive look were graduates like Jonathan Jamison (Film, 2007) as stereoscopic supervisor and Reilly Lohr (Computer Animation, 2008) as texture painter.

Argo is another critical favorite up for Best Picture, with Ben Affleck’s gripping thriller taking an additional five nominations. Alumni contributing to the film’s production included Michael Aleshire (set dresser; Film, 1997), Christian Labarta (additional set production assistant; Film, 1999), Nha Hoan Le (digital tracking/matchmove artist; Computer Animation, 2011), Shawn A. Mutchler (grip; Film, 2002), Donald Strubler (compositor; Computer Animation, 2009), and David B. Wolgemuth II (digital compositor; Computer Animation, 2008).

Rounding out the Best Picture nominees with grad involvement are Django Unchained and Zero Dark Thirty. Both films took five nominations each, and will go head to head in other categories like Original Screenplay and Sound Editing. Andrea Babineau (Film, 2008) and Dirk Stout (Recording Arts, 1995) were on Quentin Tarantino’s Django, while Oliver Hug worked as additional music editor on Zero Dark Thirty – director Kathryn Bigelow’s follow up to her previous Oscar-winner, The Hurt Locker.

It was also great to see the more specialized Oscar categories highlight films with alumni credits. One of the more notable distinctions being that graduates worked on all five of the projects nominated for Visual Effects, with dozens directly involved in their development in roles like digital compositor, roto artist, stereoscopic lead, and technical director. These nominees are The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Life of Pi, The Avengers, Prometheus, and Snow White and the Huntsman.

Not to be outdone, Best Animated Feature nominees Brave, ParaNorman, and Wreck-It Ralph all featured the work of notable alumni. Jason Potter (Film, 2001) was senior data wrangler on the stop-motion hit ParaNorman, while 2010 Full Sail Hall of Fame inductee Kristifir Klein worked on Brave as environment lead. Four grads contributed to Wreck-It Ralph, with John Kahwaty (Computer Animation, 2008) as character technical director, Chelsea Lavertu (Computer Animation, 2010) and Lance Summers (Computer Animation, 2008) as look development artists, and 2009 Hall of Fame inductee Gary Rizzo as re-recording mixer.

This is only a portion of the Full Sail grads who put their hard work into this year’s Oscar nominees, and we’ll report back with a full list of alumni on the winning projects following the ceremony next month. With this lineup in contention – and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane as host – it’s set to be one of the more memorable ceremonies, and you can watch ABC’s live broadcast on February 24 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

This is only a portion of the Full Sail grads who put their hard work into this year’s Oscar nominees, and we’ll report back with a full list of alumni on the winning projects following the ceremony next month. With this lineup in contention – and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane as host – it’s set to be one of the more memorable ceremonies, and you can watch ABC’s live broadcast on February 24 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

The complete list of nominees for the 85th Academy Awards are as follows:

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Les Miserables
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Directing
Michael Hanake – Amour
Ang Lee – Life of Pi
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg – Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Actor in a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
Hugh Jackman – Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix – The Master
Denzel Washington – Flight

Actress in a Leading Role
Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva – Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis – Beasts of Southern Wild
Naomi Watts – The Impossible

Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin – Argo
Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained

Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams – The Master
Sally Field – Lincoln
Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Jackie Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook

Animated Feature Film
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph

Writing – Original Screenplay
Amour – Michael Haneke
Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino
Flight – John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom – Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty – Mark Boal

Writing – Adapted Screenplay
Argo – Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild – Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi – David Magee
Lincoln – Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell

Music – Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyrics by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs a Best Friend” from Ted, music by Walter Murphy, lyrics by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna, lyrics by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyrics by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
“Suddenly” from Les Miserables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Foreign Language Film
Amour (Austria)
Kon-Tiki (Norway)
No (Chile)
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
War Witch (Canada)

Cinematography
Anna Karenina
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

Costume Design
Anna Karenina
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Mirror Mirror
Snow White and the Huntsman

Documentary – Feature
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man

Documentary – Short
Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption

Film Editing
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Makeup And Hairstyling
Hitchcock
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Miserables

Music – Original Score
Anna Karenina
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

Production Design
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln

Short Film – Animated
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head over Heels
Maggie Simpson in ‘The Longest Daycare’
Paperman

Short Film – Live Action
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew
Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)
Henry

Sound Editing
Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty

Sound Mixing
Argo
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life of Pi
Marvel’s The Avengers
Prometheus
Snow White and the Huntsman