2. Kathryn Bigelow - Best Director (Zero Dark Thirty)
Before the nominations were announced, the more cynical of you could have been forgiven for imagining that Zero Dark Thirty might pick up some nods based solely on its patriotic element. You probably wouldn't have guessed that once they were over, the film would be up for Best Film, but not Best Director, and that a script based on real-life events had somehow qualified as a Best Original Screenplay contender. Indeed, while the Screenplay nomination is something of a head-scratcher, the fact that director Bigelow didn't pick up a nomination for Best Director is downright baffling. A couple of weeks ago, given the opportunity to pick the three directors who would fight for the award, without hesitation I would have offered Bigelow, Ben Affleck and Steven Spielberg. And now, only one of those names made it out of the hat, and barring an unlikely rise from Ang Lee or maybe David O Russell (the very dark horse), it looks like it's Spielberg's to lose. It seems an oversight not to nominate Bigelow, whose film did pick up five nominations including the big Best Film nod, as the film is so obviously her creation, just as Argo is very Affleckian.