Contenders React to OSCAR Nominations

Director
Ang Lee, Life Of Pi
"I am deeply honored and frankly a little overwhelmed by all of the nominations that Life Of Pi has received this morning. So many talented people gave everything they had to this film, both in front of and behind the camera, and to see all of them receive this kind of recognition is something I am incredibly grateful for." - Lee

Supporting Actor
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
"I am very pleased that the Academy has chosen to honor the many individuals who were a part of 'Silver Linings Playbook.' " - De Niro

Animated Feature
Brave
"With Brave, getting that story right and making the audience believe in the characters and their plight, and getting the parent/child relationship to sing and be meaningful and eloquent was the hardest challenge. Also, with getting it to look the way it looks, we didn't have the current technology in place when we started, so things had to be created along the way. Everyone had to be brave to make Brave. If the award does get into my hands, I'll be able to take it back to share with the crew. Directors can't do it alone, and everyone was excellent and passionate, and we were all in this together." - writer-director Mark Andrews

Frankenweenie
"Frankenweenie is a very personal film for me. The idea of telling a feature-length version was in the back of my mind for many years. Stop Motion was the perfect medium for this project, and one I've always loved for its expressiveness and dimensionality. I've worked with so many incredible artists: animators, cast members, set builders, and puppet makers, all who have helped bring this film to life one frame at a time. I'm so honored that the Academy has recognized this film as one of its nominees." - director Tim Burton

ParaNorman

"My heartfelt thanks to the Academy for honoring LAIKA and ParaNorman with this nomination. Working with our directors Chris Butler and Sam Fell and my fellow producer Arianne Sutner to bring ParaNorman to audiences worldwide has been the most rewarding experience of my professional life. We're indebted to Focus Features and Universal Pictures for their advocacy and resolve, to our exceptional cast members for their keenly felt performances, and above all to our unparalleled, extraordinarily talented crew for handcrafting a moving and beautiful work of art." - LAKIA president and CEO Travis Knight

Pirates! Band Of Misfits
"This is amazing! We tried to do something a little different with The Pirates, in terms of tone and comedy, and it's just brilliant that the Academy has responded to it in such a wonderful way." - director Peter Lord

Wreck-It Ralph
"Five in the morning has never looked so good! The Emmys [for Futurama and The Simpsons] have been wonderful to be a part of, but man, this really feels like something special. This is on such a level - to hear my name read, it really got me in a way that's indescribable. I'm so excited and proud of the work that we did at Disney. The biggest challenge to this film was dealing with so many different video game worlds and it was very important to me that the worlds feel unique to the genre of video games we were representing. Only, a movie wants to congeal into a homogenous look and style, which is normal for any production, so trying to protray these different styles was going against the force of nature, and it took a lot of persistance and a lot of trust in the fantastic crew that the vision was one that was going to work, that we could push against the natural way of things in animated film." - writer-director Rich Moore

Original Score
Dario Marianelli, Anna Karenina
"I am delighted to be nominated, and humbled by being in the company of composers whose work I have admired for so long. For the fourth time, director Joe Wright has inspired me and made sure that I would not miss any of the opportunities that his movie opened up for the music. I feel very grateful towards him." - Marianelli

Animated Short Film
Adam And Dog
"I am very thankful to be nominated! I couldn't wait to share it with my wonderful crew. I kept reading the list over and over to make sure that it's really there and I'm not imagining it!" - director Minkyu Lee

Paperman
"It's beyond an honor to have Paperman nominated for an Oscar. I can't thank everyone on the team enough for their passion and hard work in making this dream project a reality." - director John Kahrs