[WATCH] Oscar nominations announced, Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln lead the way

Mental illness comedy-drama Silver Linings Playbook and historical epic Lincoln are leading the way in the main categories for this year's Oscars, which will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on February 24.

The nominees, which were announced earlier today by the ceremony's host Seth McFarlane (creator of the risqué cartoon Family Guy) and actress Emma Stone (Easy A, Gangster Squad) also featured the Malta-filmed Swedish historical sea-faring drama Kon-Tiki in the Foreign Language category.

But though the nominations contain few surprises, if a few of the more interesting and quirky selections do end up leaving with an award in hand come February, it could potentially revitalise the status of the Academy in the eyes of many film fans worldwide, some of whom have begun to view the illustrious American award show as a sterile, predictable affair.

Among these is the little-film-that-could Beasts of the Southern Wild, nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Director. The debut feature for director Benh Zeitlin (adapted from the play Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar, who also penned the screenplay), the story of a girl called Hushpuppy (Quenzevane Wallis) who lives on a rickety boat community in a post-Hurricane Katrina like environment boasts no professional actors, with the cast being sourced directly from the New Orleans milieu Zeitlin captures with a documentary-like intensity.

But despite its gritty visual approach, the film is very much a magical fable, with the nine-year-old Wallis facing off with large mythical beasts, 'the aurochs', who are unleashed onto the ramshackle community as the ice caps melt.

Wallis is officially the youngest actress to ever be nominated in the Best Actress category, while her rival, the 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva, is the eldest, and in the running for her role in Michael Haneke's Amour.

The French-Austrian-German co-production, helmed by legendary director Michael Haneke, swept up the the top awards at European Film Awards held in Malta last month, and is also nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director (Micheal Haneke), while inevitably making its way into the Best Foreign Language Film category (the film is notable for being among one of the first non-English language features to claw its way out of the 'Foreign Language' Oscar-ghetto).

Joining the international selection of films are No (Chile), War Witch (Canada), A Royal Affair (Denmark) and Kon-Tiki (Sweden), which was partly filmed in Malta in 2011.

Beyond these awards it all gets rather predictable - starting from the clean sweep made by Silver Linings Playbook and Lincoln, with awards for their respective directors, screenwriters as well as main and supporting actors up for grabs.

The other popular heavy-hitters include Les Miserables (Best Picture, Best Actor (Hugh Jackman), Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway)) along with Osama Bin Laden assassination thriller Zero Dark Thirty (Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Chastain), Original Screenplay (Mark Boal)) and the Quentin Tarantino Western revenge romp Django Unchained, which is up for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz) and Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino).

Meanwhile, three other films are left to compete in what is effectively a second-place band of nominations.

Ang Lee's dazzling adaptation of Yann Martel's Life of Pi has scored the Brokeback Mountain director yet another Oscar nomination, while it also - predictably enough - places itself in the running for Best Adapted Screenplay, while Paul Thomas Anderson's Scientology biopic (or is it?) The Master, despite being touted as a sure-fire Oscar hoarder, enjoys just three acting-based nominations - one for Joaquin Phoenix (Best Actor) and another for Amy Adams (Best Supporting Actress).

Starring and directed by Ben Affleck, the stranger-than-fiction political thriller Argo is up for Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay (Chris Terrio) and Best Supporting Actor (Alan Arkin) - though the recently declassified story about a fake film production commissioned by the CIA to head to Iran in an attempt to rescue stranded American diplomats was always going to gain traction.

It may be less dramatically hefty than its competiton, but the Robert Zemeckis thriller Flight has scored a Best Actor award for its star Denzel Washington, as well as a Best Screenplay nod for its writer, John Gatnis.

Which leaves two blondes - Naomi Watts (The Impossible) and Helen Hunt (The Sessions) - and a quirky indie - Moonrise Kingdom - to compete in isolation; under the banners of Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively.

By the usually austere Academy standards, this year's selection is quite a heady mix. Let's hope this colourful mood is reflected in the finally tally come February 24.