Oscars 2013: Take our Best Picture poll!

Academy Award nominees for Best Picture of 2012: "Amour," "Argo," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Django Unchained," "Les Miserables," "Life of Pi," "Lincoln," "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Zero Dark Thirty." / CBS News

Which movie should take home the Oscar this year?

80 Photos

Oscars 2013: Best Picture nominees

You can go behind the scenes of the nine Academy Award nominees for Best Picture by clicking on the slideshow at left.

Then, be sure to vote in our Oscar poll below to tell us which film you would vote for to win the film industry's biggest prize.

And the nominees are . . . :

"Amour" - This intimate portrayal of an aged couple grappling with illness and the specter of loss from Austrian director Michael Haneke was a top-prize winner at Cannes and the European Film Awards. The movie stars 85-year-old French actress Emmanuelle Riva in a stirring, Oscar-nominated performance

• Review: "Amour," a lifetime's love tested
• Edelstein: "Amour" is a hell of a movie
• "Amour," "The Master" top L.A. film critics awards

"Argo" - Based on the true story, this serio-comic tale of a CIA operative who tries to evacuate Americans trapped in Tehran during the 1979 hostage crisis by pretending to be a Canadian film crew won Ben Affleck Best Director prizes from the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA and the Golden Globes

• Watch: Ben Affleck on directing new thriller, "Argo"
• Oscars nominations' surprising director snubs: Affleck, Bigelow
• Ben Affleck's "Argo" wins BAFTA for best picture, best director
• SAG Awards 2013: "Argo" wins top prize

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" - A prize-winner at the Sundance Film Festival, this tale of magical realism evokes a child's world in the Louisiana bayou, and stars the youngest Best Actress nominee ever: 9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis.

• "Beasts of the Southern Wild" director: Giant movie on tiny shoulders
• "Beasts" star Quvenzhane Wallis: Fearless

"Django Unchained" - A violent and funny tale of bounty hunters and slave owners in the pre-Civil War South, this celebration of spaghetti Westerns and genre movies was directed by Quentin Tarantino, who won the Best Original Screenplay awards from the Golden Globes and BAFTA.

• Watch: Quentin Tarantino honored at MoMA Film Benefit
• "Django Unchained" action figures discontinued over complaints they were offensive
• Watch: "Sunday Morning" Profile - Jamie Foxx

"Les Miserables" - This adaptation of the long-running stage musical of love and vengeance set against a backdrop of 18th century revolutionary France stars Oscar nominees Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway.

• Watch: Hugh Jackman's role of a lifetime
• Watch: Hathaway, Jackman on "Les Miserables"
• Anne Hathaway: "Les Miserables" left me in a state of deprivation
• Golden Globes 2013: "Argo," "Les Miserables" win best picture honors

"Life of Pi" - Directed by Ang Lee and shot in 3-D, this mystical fable tells of a young shipwreck survivor stranded on a lifeboat with a voracious Bengal tiger.

• Edelstein on the ravishingly strange "Life of Pi"
• Ang Lee promotes "Life of Pi" in Taiwan

"Lincoln" - Steven Spielberg's political drama of the 16th president's fight for a constitutional amendment to end slavery features Oscar-nominated performances by Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones.

• Spielberg's "Lincoln" more than 10 years in the making
• Daniel Day-Lewis on playing Lincoln
• Sally Field: How her pluck won her role in "Lincoln"

"Silver Linings Playbook" - A comedy-drama of a man released from a mental institution, who conspires with a young woman to help him win back his estranged wife, stars a quartet of Oscar nominees: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver.

• Bradley Cooper: A Philly boy through and through
• Watch: Bradley Cooper on "Silver Linings Playbook," Oscar nod
• Robert De Niro on acting, shyness and luck
• Jennifer Lawrence: "I'm considered a fat actress"

"Zero Dark Thirty" - This gripping and controversial account of the hunt and ultimate killing of terror leader Osama bin Laden stars Best Actress nominee Jessica Chastain.

• N.Y. film critics pick "Zero Dark Thirty" as year's best
• Kathryn Bigelow defends "Zero Dark Thirty" torture scenes
• Sony exec: "Zero Dark Thirty" does not advocate torture
• Edelstein: "Zero Dark Thirty" no easy moral tale
• Watch: Jessica Chastain on "Zero Dark Thirty"

Take our poll! Tell us which movie you would vote for if you were an Academy member.

You can see all of the Oscar nominees by downloading our ballot here (pdf file).

And click here for complete CBSNews.com coverage of the 85th annual Academy Awards, including interviews, videos and photo galleries.

The Oscars will be broadcast on Sunday, February 24, from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, hosted by Seth MacFarlane.

Be sure to vote in our other Oscar polls, including:

Best Original Song poll

[WhispersRD]

Don't quite understand the groundswell for Argo. It's a decent film but hardly feels like "Best Picture" material. And the last twenty minutes were fairly ridiculous. The direction and the screenplay felt like a '70s police drama. The film would have been much better without cars chasing the plane down the runway. What is this, a Bond film?

Lincoln is better. Life of Pi is better. Even Les Mis is better. And Django, while not better per se, is far more thought-provoking. Even The Hunger Games was better, but it's in a genre that has no hope of winning this award.

[rememberwhatbushdid]

ARGO is a fun, feel good about America movie. Only problem is...the movie ARGO is almost as fake as the movie they are pretending to make in the movie! It is wildly exaggerated. There was no drama in leaving nor were they chased down the runway. LINCOLN the movie, on the other hand, like the man...belongs to the ages. It is a true artistic masterpiece,...meticulously accurate right down to remaking the exact wallpapers and carpets...even recording the tick of Lincoln's own watch. LINCOLN has the greatest writing, performance, and direction of my lifetime. I saw it six times, and all six times at the end the audience politely and reverently applauded. That hasn't happened in years and years. LINCOLN!

[SluggoJD]

Well I wouldn't say "hands down," but Life of Pi was a beautiful film and is worthy of Best Pic. Zero Dark Thirty is also a worthy choice. Fuark, so many good ones this year, probably the strongest year ever.

[justme-123]

The Oscars handed out 50 years ago, for the year 1962, had to choose for the various categories, between: Lawrence of Arabia, The Longest Day, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Miracle Worker, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Music Man, Lolita, David and Lisa and The Manchurian Candidate, among others. Tops this year's crop, by a mile, IMHO.

[d-dagger]

Hands down...Life of Pi. Absolutely brilliant!

[justme-123]

Argo based on the true story? Based very, very loosely on what really happened. This account has as much fiction as fact, including the absurd ending. It leaves out the real character John Sheardown. Who? All this Canadian did was actually shelter most of the escapees, at great risk. If the filmmakers didn't think the true story worth telling, they should have picked a different story.