It’s a history-making year for the Best Actress category as the nominations for “Beasts of the Southern Wild” star Quvenzhane Wallis and “Silver Linings Playbook” star Jennifer Lawrence made history. Nine year old Wallis becomes the youngest person ever to be nominated for Best Actress, while Lawrence, at 22, becomes the youngest person to be nominated twice for Best Actress (she received her first nomination in 2010 for “Winter’s Bone”). Also making history in the category is Emmanuelle Riva for “Amour”, who becomes the oldest Best Actress nominee ever at age 85. Naomi Watts for “The Impossible” and Jessica Chastain – thought to be Lawrence’s biggest competition for the win – for “Zero Dark Thirty” rounded out the top five.

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “Silver Linings Playbook” not only made history but were also two of the biggest winners of the morning, each earning more nominations than expected. In addition to Wallis, “Beasts” also garnered a Best Director nod for Behn Zeitlin and a Best Picture nomination. “Silver Linings” got its expected Best Picture, Best Director (David O. Russell), Best Supporting Actor (Robert DeNiro) and Best Actor (Bradly Cooper) nominations, but it surprised in Best Supporting Actress, where Jacki Weaver was nominated. That category is still led by Anne Hathaway’s powerhouse performance in “Les Miserables” (which missed out on Best Director for Tom Hooper but garnerd Hugh Jackman a Best Actor nod), while Amy Adams was nominated for “The Master”, Sally Field for “Lincoln” and Helen Hunt for “The Sessions.”

The category with the biggest shocks of the morning definitely came from Best Director, which snubbed not only Hooper for “Les Mis”, but also thought-to-be-sure-bets Kathryn Bigelow for “Zero Dark Thirty” and Ben Affleck for “Argo.” The two films had been thought to be the frontrunners for not only Best Director but also Best Picture, and will seemingly face a much steeper uphill climb on the latter. Steven Spielberg got an expected and deserved nomination for “Lincoln” (which led all nominations with 12), while Zeitlin for “Beasts”, Russell for “Silver Linings”, Ang Lee for “Life of Pi” (which came in second with 11 noms, including Best Picture) and Michael Haneke for “Amour” (which also picked up a Best Picture nom) rounded out the five.

The full list of nominations, announced this morning by Oscar host Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone, can be found below (thanks to AwardsDaily).

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