I didn’t wake up at 5:30 am PT this morning to watch the Oscar nominations live but I did PVR it and watched it this morning and boy am I glad that I did.

In an unusual move, Oscar host Seth McFarlane announced the nominees with Emma Stone (not that unusual). Normally, it is the Academy Awards President who announces it with the hot actress de jour and usually he is very stilted in his banter with the lady and the reading of the nominees in past years have been by rote and boring.

But with McFarlane announcing them this year with Stone, comedy was to be had and comedy there was. You can watch the nominees being read via this EW.com link.

I particularly loved Stone and McFarlane commentary to the nominees to Best Supporting Actor as each name was read, Stone and McFarland commented that every man there has won an Oscar before. McFarlane quipped something along the lines that the category has a breath of fresh air in it. In case you were wondering the nominees were: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained (he previously won for Inglorious Basterds), Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master (he previously won for Capote), Robert De Niro for Silver Linings Playbook (he previously won for Raging Bull and The Godfarther: Part II), Alan Arkin for Argo (he previously won for Little Miss Sunshine) and Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln (he previously won for The Fugitive).

Best Song was announced this morning and normally doesn’t get this recognition but this was done because McFarlane got nominated for this song ““Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from his film Ted. McFarlane then joked that he now has a reason to come to the Oscars. Other songs nominated include “Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph; “Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna; lyric by Bombay Jayashri; “Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth; “Suddenly” from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil. Having 5 nominees in this category again is a welcome relief after only having two last year and no performances from the nominated songs during the broadcast. I think I can safely say with the star power of Adele and Hugh Jackman, who sing two of the nominated songs, it would be hard for the producers not to have this category being performed. Another comedic moment came during the announcement of Best Actor, where Stone quipped that Denzel Washington’s character in Flight was just as drunk as people in the room where the nominees where being announced. Other nominees include Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook; Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln; Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables and Joaquin Phoenix, The Master.

After the Best Supporting Actress nominees where announced, McFarlane joked that these ladies no longer had to pretend to be interested in what Harvey Weinstein had to say or something along those lines. The nominees in this category include futuer Lois Lane Amy Adams, The Master; Sally Field, Lincoln; Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables, Helen Hunt, The Sessions, and Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook.

Those were the highlights of the nominee announcement this morning. There were some surprises this morning like Tom Hooper, Kathyrn Bigelow and Ben Affleck getting snubbed for Best Director. I was surprised that Pirates! Band of Misfits got nominated for Best Animated Feature as that was a rubbish film. Happy to see Wreck-it-Ralph (a movie I still want to see) and Brave getting nominated.

While I never saw it, was happy to see Amour receive some Oscar love. I have heard and read that this movie is a very emotional portrayal of end of life. So happy to see it get a Best Director nod, Best Actress nod for Emmanuelle Riva (who, at 85, is the oldest Oscar nominee ever) and Best Original Screenplay. And Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild is the youngest nominee ever at the age of 9.

Very happy to see Anne Hathaway get a nomination for Les Miserables. Her Fantine is so devastating that it had me in tears.

As for the Best Picture nominees, I’ve only seen one out of the nine nominated. Here are the nominees: Amour; Argo; Beasts of the Southern Wild; Django Unchained; Les Miserables; Life of Pi; Lincoln; Silver Linings Playbook; Zero Dark Thirty.

I don’t know who will win Best Picture but I know that whichever wins, I will be seeing it.

Stay tuned on February 24, 2013 for my live blogging of the ceremony and see who wins my annual Oscar bet with my younger brother.

The full list of Oscar nominees can be found at Oscars.com.