Stop-motion animated features stood center stage this year as the Motion Picture Academy announced nominations for the 85th Academy Awards this morning.

The three most prominent 2012 stop-motion animated features, Laika's ParaNorman, Disney's Frankenweenie and Aardman's The Pirates! Band of Misfits, along with Pixar's Brave and Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, all garnered Best Animated Feature Film nominations.

For Best Animated Short Film, Disney's Paperman, PES' Fresh Guacamole, Minkyu Lee's Adam and Dog, David Silverman's Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" and Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly's Head over Heels were selected.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, led by VFX supervisor Joe Letteri, Life of Pi, led by VFX supervisor Bill Westenhofer, Marvel's The Avengers, led by VFX supervisor Janek Sirrs, Prometheus, led by VFX supervisor Richard Stammers, and Snow White and the Huntsman, led by VFX supervisor Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, were all nominated for Best Achievement in Visual Effects.

A complete list of nominees can be found in the AMPAS release below:

From AMPAS press release:

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards® were announced today (Thursday, January 10) by this year's Oscar host, Seth MacFarlane, and actress Emma Stone.

MacFarlane and Stone announced the nominees at a 5:38 a.m. PT live news conference attended by more than 400 international media representatives. For a complete list of nominees, visit the official Academy Awards website, www.oscar.com.

Academy members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories – actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. In the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominees are selected by vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.

Official screenings of all motion pictures with one or more nominations will begin for members on Saturday, January 19, at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Screenings will also be held at the Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood and in London, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Active members of the Academy are eligible to vote for the winners in all categories.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

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Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards

Performance by an actor in a leading role
•    Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playbook"
•    Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln"
•    Hugh Jackman in "Les Misérables"
•    Joaquin Phoenix in "The Master"
•    Denzel Washington in "Flight"

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
•    Alan Arkin in "Argo"
•    Robert De Niro in "Silver Linings Playbook"
•    Philip Seymour Hoffman in "The Master"
•    Tommy Lee Jones in "Lincoln"
•    Christoph Waltz in "Django Unchained"

Performance by an actress in a leading role
•    Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty"
•    Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook"
•    Emmanuelle Riva in "Amour"
•    Quvenzhané Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
•    Naomi Watts in "The Impossible"

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
•    Amy Adams in "The Master"
•    Sally Field in "Lincoln"
•    Anne Hathaway in "Les Misérables"
•    Helen Hunt in "The Sessions"
•    Jacki Weaver in "Silver Linings Playbook"

Best animated feature film of the year
•    "Brave" Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
•    "Frankenweenie" Tim Burton
•    "ParaNorman" Sam Fell and Chris Butler
•    "The Pirates! Band of Misfits" Peter Lord
•    "Wreck-It Ralph" Rich Moore

Achievement in cinematography
•    "Anna Karenina" Seamus McGarvey
•    "Django Unchained" Robert Richardson
•    "Life of Pi" Claudio Miranda
•    "Lincoln" Janusz Kaminski
•    "Skyfall" Roger Deakins

Achievement in costume design
•    "Anna Karenina" Jacqueline Durran
•    "Les Misérables" Paco Delgado
•    "Lincoln" Joanna Johnston
•    "Mirror Mirror" Eiko Ishioka
•    "Snow White and the Huntsman" Colleen Atwood

Achievement in directing
•    "Amour" Michael Haneke
•    "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Benh Zeitlin
•    "Life of Pi" Ang Lee
•    "Lincoln" Steven Spielberg
•    "Silver Linings Playbook" David O. Russell