Lincoln receives 13 Critics Choice film nominations

Steven Spielberg's biographical drama about Abraham Lincoln has received 13 citations from the latest film awards body to announce its nominations.

Lincoln's 13 nods at the Critics Choice Movie Awards will exceed the 12 given to 2010's Black Swan by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BCFA).

Its nominations include citations for Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field as well as one for best acting ensemble.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles on 10 January.

The film version of stage musical Les Miserables received 11 nominations, while romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook earned ten.

Ang Lee's Life of Pi was recognised nine times, while Iran hostage thriller Argo, cult drama The Master and James Bond film Skyfall have seven nominations each.

Yet there are only five nods for Kathryn Bigelow's Osama Bin Laden thriller Zero Dark Thirty, which has been leading the field in the first round of critics awards.

Joey Berlin, president of the BFCA, said 2012 had been "a truly spectacular year in filmmaking", adding that its 270-plus members had had "an embarrassment of riches to choose from".

The Critics Choice nominations will be followed later this week by the nominations for 2013's Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards.

Meanwhile, another prize contender - Quentin Tarantino's slavery-era western Django Unchained - has received another set of nominations from another awards body.

The film will be up for four prizes at the 44th annual NAACP Image awards, to be presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on 1 February.

Acclaimed independent film Beasts of the Southern Wild is also up for four awards, among them a best actress prize for its nine-year-old star Quvenzhane Wallis.