The Academy announced this morning that Daniel Day Lewis‘s Best Actor nomination for his astounding performance in Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln will be ratified about a week earlier that usual, or on Tuesday, 1.15. If 2013 was a slightly more normal year Lewis’s nomination would be announced around the 22nd or thereabouts.
On top of which the 1.15 announcement means Phase Two will last a week longer with the Oscar telecast set for Sunday, 2.24.
Who’s gonna take Lewis’s Oscar away? Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby? Phillip Seymour Hoffman as The Master? Bill Murray as FDR? Hugh Jackman or Russell Crowe in Les Miserables? Nobody is going to beat Honest Abe-who-gets-shot. It’s over. Forget it.
Unless, of course, Speilberg goes all War Horse-y or Amastad-y on our 16th President, in which case Lewis will have to get out there and campaign with an implied message that says “look, Spielberg is Spielberg…he’s not going to change…but my performance is my performance.”