Steven Spielberg has done it again, he has matched his personal best at the Academy Awards: 12 nominations for his Civil War saga "Lincoln," including best picture, director and acting honors for Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones.

That ties the 12 nominations for his 1993 drama "Schindler's List," which won seven Oscars, including best picture and director.

Also among the nine nominees for best picture were "Amour", "Argo" "Beasts of the Southern Wild", "Django Unchained"; the musical "Les Misérables"; the shipwreck story "Life of Pi", "Silver Linings Playbook"; and the Osama bin Laden manhunt chronicle "Zero Dark Thirty."

At least three notable names were missing from the Best Director category: Ben Affleck for Argo, Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty, and Tom Hooper for Les Miserables.All three had been nominated for DGA Awards.