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Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSeth MacFarlane and Emma Stone announced the nominees for best picture on Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif.

LOS ANGELES — Torture. Terror. Depression. Revolt. Where's Uggie the dog when you need him?

The 85th Academy Awards season jolted into place early Thursday morning, as the heaviest number of Oscar nominations — including nods for best picture — went to "Lincoln," about a president's struggle with civil war, "Life of Pi," about a shipwreck survivor and a tiger, "Silver Linings Playbook," a comedy, of sorts, about mental illness, and "Les Misérables," filled with songs of the oppressed.

Close behind were "Argo," about political captivity, "Amour," a French-language film about death, and "Django Unchained," about slavery and retribution, were close behind.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild," about a child's encounters with rising floodwaters in the South, and "Zero Dark Thirty," about the murky pursuit of a national enemy, for the abuses of slavery also scored heavily and were nominated for best picture.

But the morning's real surprise was a triple snub in the best director category: Neither Kathryn Bigelow, who directed "Zero Dark Thirty," nor Ben Affleck, who directed "Argo," nor Quentin Tarantino, who directed "Django Unchained," were included among the five directing nominees.

Those were Steven Spielberg, for "Lincoln," Ang Lee, for "Life of Pi," Michael Haneke, for "Amour," David O. Russell, for "Silver Linings Playbook," and Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

In all, nine films received best picture nominations, in a field that can include as many as ten or as few as five, depending on how voters from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences spread their hand.

The nominations were announced at the Academy's Beverly Hills headquarters in an early morning ceremony that paired the actress Emma Stone with the host of this year's Oscar telecast, Seth MacFarlane. The unusual inclusion of Mr. MacFarlane, the creator of the animated "Family Guy" TV show, was an effort by the Academy to increase his public profile; only once before (in 1972) has a host announced nominees.

Mr. MacFarlane worked hard to squelch skepticism about his selection as host and give a hint of what will come on Oscar night, cracking a series of one-liners that mocked the self-seriousness of the Oscars and the craft of moviemaking. The directing nominees, he quipped, are "the very best at sitting in a chair and watching other people make a movie." Of the foreign film "Amour," he said, "The last time Austria and Germany co-produced something was Hitler." (Cue nervous laughter from the 400 or so reporters in the room.)

Hollywood now faces a somewhat longer-than-usual campaign period. A new digital voting system — despite its reported hitches — allowed the Academy to announce nominees two weeks earlier than last year, and more than six weeks before the awards ceremony, which ABC will broadcast on Feb. 24.

"Lincoln," directed by Steven Spielberg, had gone into the morning as the picture to beat, and it remained a leader, with 12 nominations. But it barely outpaced "Life of Pi," which beat the expectations by coming up second, with 11 nominations in all, even as "Zero Dark Thirty," an early favorite, fell into the pack, with just five.

Mr. Spielberg's directing nomination was his seventh, while Daniel Day-Lewis received his fifth best actor nomination, this time for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. (He has won twice.) Sally Field was among the "Lincoln" nominees, as a supporting actress for playing Mary Todd Lincoln, as was Tony Kushner, for writing the film's adapted script.

All of that, plus an aggressive promotional campaign that found the film playing as a civics lesson in the United States Senate, have helped create a sense that "Lincoln" is the most important picture in a self-consciously important field.

In Oscar terms, however, it remains to be seen if "Lincoln" is more like "The Artist," which last year established dominance (with help from its cheery Jack Russell terrier co-star, Uggie) and went on to win, or Mr. Spielberg's own "Saving Private Ryan," which seemed to lead, but watched "Shakespeare in Love" take the best picture Oscar in 1999.

Though no slouch when it comes to importance, "Zero Dark Thirty," about the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, may have been hurt by controversy, as several senators and a number of political critics tore into the film for its portrayal of the use of torture.

Senators Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and John McCain last month insisted that Michael Morell, the acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, explain whether Ms. Bigelow and the film's writer, Mark Boal, had perhaps been "misled" about the efficacy of torture by the C.I.A. But Oscar voters gave the film nominations for writing and nominated its star, Jessica Chastain, as best actress.

"Zero Dark Thirty" may yet connect with a larger audience – it opens in wide release on Friday – but the remaining best actress nominees all hailed from movies most Americans have not seen: Jennifer Lawrence was nominated, for "Silver Linings Playbook"; "Emmanuelle Riva," for "Amour"; Quvenzhané Wallis (a nine-year-old), for "Beasts of the Southern Wild"; and Naomi Watts, for "The Impossible."

For best actor, Bradley Cooper was nominated for "Silver Linings Playbook"; Joaquin Phoenix for "The Master," about the relationships among characters in a cult; Hugh Jackman, for "Les Misérables"; and Denzel Washington, for "Flight."

One of only two African American nominees, Mr. Washington, who played a drunken but skilled airline pilot in "Flight," had received five nominations in the past, winning twice. (Among perennials, Meryl Streep was missing this year, though she had a Golden Globe nomination for her work in "Hope Springs.")

Among the huge winners on Thursday was the Walt Disney Company, which had three of the five nominees in the best animated feature category—"Brave," "Frankenweenie," and "Wreck-It Ralph." DreamWorks Animation, another powerhouse in the field, had none. "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," released by Sony Pictures, and "ParaNorman," from Focus Features, were also among the animation nominees.

"Silver Linings Playbook," from the Weinstein Company, also came up a winner, as it took seven nominations in top eleven categories, which were announced in a live television broadcast. It slightly outstripped "Lincoln" in the major categories, and handily outweighed "Life of Pi," which had no acting nominees.

Some contenders were emphatically factored out on Thursday. "Moonrise Kingdom," which had been on some lists as a best picture contender, received a nomination only for its original screenplay, by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola.

In keeping with recent tradition, the Academy also brushed off the best box-office performers. There were no nominations in the major categories for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," "The Dark Knight Rises" or "Skyfall."

The Oscar process has been especially rough this year, as the Academy began phasing out paper ballots in favor of online voting. The idea was to get quicker results, which allowed the group to break precedent by announcing its nominations in advance of the rival Golden Globes ceremony, set for Sunday.

But some of the Academy's roughly 6,000 potential voters remained unaware of the shift until balloting was near. Others had difficulty accessing a heavily secured voting system. And the Oscar nominating vote was ultimately extended by a day—after the documentary branch members got an extension for voting on their shotlist, which was selected under new rules.

On the documentary front, the new process, which was meant to broaden the pool of voters making a first-cut of the candidates, yielded what appeared to be a fairly conventional list of either culturally hip or politically progressive nominees. Those were "5 Broken Cameras," about Palestinian resistance to the Israeli army; "The Gatekeepers," about the Israeli security apparatus; "How to Survive a Plague," about AIDS; "The Invisible War," about rape in the U. S. military; and "Searching for Sugar Man," about the lost career of the singer Sixto Rodriguez.

If "Lincoln" were to win the top Oscar, it would be Disney's first best picture other than those served up by the Miramax unit, which it acquired from Bob and Harvey Weinstein, and then sold. "Lincoln" was distributed by Disney and produced by DreamWorks Studios with the involvement of companies like Participant Media and 20th Century Fox.

20th Century Fox, which distributed "Life of Pi," and Sony Pictures, which distributed "Zero Dark Thirty," had at least 18 nominations, while the Weinstein Company and Universal Studios had at least 17 each. In all, that made it a good year for the major studios; but the leading independent, Weinstein, has come on strong.

Tom Hooper was bypassed as the director of "Les Misérables," from Universal. But the film's presumed strength among actors—Anne Hathaway was nominated as best supporting actress, along with Mr. Jackman's best actor nomination—still make it a force to be reckoned with.

"Skyfall" will presumably make an appearance on ABC's Oscar telecast, as part of a special retrospective on the 50-year-old James Bond franchise. Any other year, a Bond montage might be a routine bid for the pop audience. But in the wake of mass killings in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., the tribute may pose a challenge for the show's producers, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, who will have to decide whether to serve up their killer-spy with or without guns.

For Mr. MacFarlane, a bigger challenge may be the need to wring laughs out of so many serious pictures. "Amour" finds an aging husband caring for his dying mate. In "Argo," Iran's revolutionary crowds crash the American embassy and begin the hostage crisis that ended the Jimmy Carter presidency.

But the season has had its lighter moments, and Mr. MacFarlane will not be shy about mocking the A-listers seated in front of him – at least if a recent post on Twitter is any indicator. Earlier this month, he shared an opinion about one of the contenders. "Liked "Les Miz" (the play)," he wrote. "But wished they were all way bigger and screaming right in my face. Is there a current film I might enjoy?"