12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club Lead Oscar Noms

The Golden Globes on Sunday were just a trial run. It’s officially Academy Awards season, and this year’s Oscar nominations were released this morning. Louisiana-filmed “12 Years a Slave,” which won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, Drama, is nominated for Best Picture, along with Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto’s “Dallas Buyers Club.” They have some stiff competition against the likes of “American Hustle” and “The Wolf of Wall Street”, but “12 Years a Slave” does seem to be this year’s darling.

Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays the part of slave Solomon Northup, is nominated for Best Actor, while Michael Fassbender gets a nom for Best Supporting Actor in his role as plantation owner Edwin Epps. Lupita Nyong’o, who wowed everyone on Sunday in a red cape dress by Ralph Lauren, is up for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of slave Patsy. The film is also nominated for Costume Design, Directing (by Steve McQueen), Film Editing, Production Design and Writing. That adds up to nine nominations total.

Best Picture nominee “Dallas Buyers Club” tells the story of Ron Woodruff (played by Matthew McConaughey), an HIV-positive, homophobic Texan, who finds himself sharing an unexpected bond with gay men who also have the disease. Realizing that he and his friends only chance of survival is going around government regulations and powerful pharmaceutical companies, he organizes an illicit trade in a drug cocktail that shows signs of slowing the virus’s progress.

As evidenced at the Golden Globes, where he took home Best Actor, Texas-born McConaughey is capable of much more than rom coms, and this may just be the performance of his life. He’s nominated for Best Actor, while Louisiana-born Jared Leto is nominated for Best Supporting Actor (he also has a Globe win in the same category) as Rayon, a transgender woman who befriends Ron. The film is also nominated for Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling and Writing.

We also have to give a nod to Southern gal Jennifer Lawrence who stole the show in “American Hustle,” which leads the way with 10 nominations. Lawrence is nominated for Best Supporting Actress. And “The Great Gatsby,” which unfortunately failed to live up to its hype as a film, gets a few nods in the Costume and Production Design categories.

The Academy Awards will air live March 2 on ABC. Stay tuned for our themed menu and live tweets during the broadcast.