AP Entertainment

Los Angeles, 4 Feb. 2013

1. One-time Oscar winner and current nominee, producer Ben Affleck ("Argo") poses for photographers

2. Two-time Oscar nominee, actress Jennifer Lawrence ("Silver Linings Playbook"), poses for photographers

3. Two-time Oscar winner and current nominee, actress Sally Field, poses for photographers

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sally Field/Oscar Nominee, "Lincoln," on how previous Academy Award experiences have informed this latest one: "Boy it's hard to say. I mean, the Oscars that I won before, that I was nominated before, last time was in the 80's when I was so much younger, and they were important to me, those films were important to me, Norma was hugely important to me, and now I'm not young and I'm this age and time has marched along, and you know, the whole 'Lincoln' journey has been unbelievably important to me. That it culminates in so much recognition is fabulous and so that feels wonderful to me."

5. Two-time Oscar nominee, actress Jacki Weaver, poses for photographers

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Jacki Weaver/Oscar Nominee, "Silver Linings Playbook," on how previous Academy Award experience has informed this new one:

"This time around I know what to expect and I'm not going to be so overwhelmed and frightened. I'm just going to enjoy it. I mean, I am overwhelmed, but it is such an enjoyable series of events and this time I'm going to really make the most of it and enjoy it and not be frightened and shy and scared."

Reporter: "I can't imagine you being scared!'

Weaver: "It is overwhelming. It really is overwhelming. Yeah. Well, it's a juggernaut of events and appearances and talking to strangers, which I've never been great at. I'm much better when I'm pretending to be someone else, which is what my job is."

7. Two-time Oscar nominee, director Tim Burton, poses for photographers

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Burton/Oscar Nominee, "Frankenweenie," on how previous Academy Award experience has informed this new one: "I don't know. This is only the second time I've been here. The way I treat it it's like, especially film -- you feel special about all films -- but with a film like this that gets any kind of recognition is really nice. Because I'm painfully aware of like the amount of work, frame by frame, that people put into it. So I think for a film like this that kind of recognition is special."

9. Two-time Oscar winner and current nominee, screenwriter-producer Mark Boal, poses for photographers with Academy president Hawk Koch (left) and director Kathryn Bigelow (center)

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Boal/Oscar Nominee, "Zero Dark Thirty," on how previous Academy Award experience has informed this new one: "It's special every time. It is special every time, but again the greatest thing about it is you get in these rooms and you get to meet people and spend time with people that are usually pretty inaccessible. To be able to sit down with some of my heroes, that's really the best part about it, to be honest."

11. Three-time Oscar nominee, writer-director David O. Russell, poses for photographers with Academy president Hawk Koch

12. SOUNDBITE (English) David O. Russell/Oscar Nominee, "Silver Linings Playbook," on how previous Academy Award experience has informed this new one: "So I feel different in that I feel probably even more appreciative than I did the first time, and I feel probably even more present. I might have been a little so overwhelmed or nervous for the first time with 'The Fighter' that it was a little harder to take it all in. This time I'm being sure to slow down and take it all in more. and I'm so grateful to be here with the entire cast. I wanted the entire cast of 'The Fighter' and I didn't think that some of them got what they could have gotten. You can't talk about deserved, because nobody really deserves anything. You're just happy if you make the movie. So this is a whole other animal, the world of awards, you know?"

13. Five-time Oscar nominee, composer Alexandre Desplat, poses for photographers

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Desplat/Oscar Nominee, "Argo," on how previous Academy Award experiences have informed this new one: "I think the first time is always the best time, because it's something you might have dreamed of. Not as something tangible, it's nothing tangible, oh the Oscars, it's over there somewhere. It suddenly becomes tangible. That's the first time and what happens next, you never know. And we never know. Maybe we never get an invitation again in my life, so the second time you say to yourself, it's incredible that I'm there again and the third time is the same. And today it's the same."

15. Two-time Oscar nominee, actress Naomi Watts, poses for photographers

16. SOUNDBITE (English) Naomi Watts/Oscar Nominee, "The Impossible," on how previous Academy Award experience has informed this new one: "It does feel like, OK, so maybe the first time wasn't a fluke. And it will be fun. And the Oscars is a big deal, like every, all the other events are great too, but your family, I've got family all over the world, and they will be watching the Oscars. It is a big deal for all of them. And you know my kids will probably watch it too, or I don't know, they might fall asleep. But it is a nice thing!"

17. One-time Oscar winner and current nominee, actor Tommy Lee Jones, poses for photographers with Academy president Hawk Koch

18. Two-time Oscar nominee, acress Anne Hathaway ("Les Miserables), poses for photographers

19. Three-time Oscar winner and current nominee, director and producer Steven Spielberg ("Lincoln"), poses for photographers

OSCAR VETERANS ON WHAT THEY'VE LEARNED

Many of this year's nominees have traveled the Oscar road before.

At this month's annual luncheon, we asked them to share how their previous experiences have changed how they've approached award season this year.

"Boy it's hard to say," said supporting actress nominee Sally Field ("Lincoln"). "I mean, the Oscars that I won before, that I was nominated before, last time was in the 80's when I was so much younger, and they were important to me, those films were important to me, Norma was hugely important to me, and now I'm not young and I'm this age and time has marched along, and you know, the whole 'Lincoln' journey has been unbelievably important to me. That it culminates in so much recognition is fabulous and so that feels wonderful to me."

"This time around I know what to expect and I'm not going to be so overwhelmed and frightened," said Field's competition, Australian actress Jacki Weaver ("Silver Linings Playbook"). "I'm just going to enjoy it. I mean, I am overwhelmed, but it is such an enjoyable series of events and this time I'm going to really make the most of it and enjoy it and not be frightened and shy and scared."

"I feel different in that I feel probably even more appreciative than I did the first time, and I feel probably even more present," said "Silver Linings Playbook" director David O. Russell. "I might have been a little so overwhelmed or nervous for the first time with 'The Fighter' that it was a little harder to take it all in. This time I'm being sure to slow down and take it all in more. and I'm so grateful to be here with the entire cast. I wanted the entire cast of 'The Fighter' and I didn't think that some of them got what they could have gotten. You can't talk about deserved, because nobody really deserves anything. You're just happy if you make the movie. So this is a whole other animal, the world of awards, you know?"

There's a great deal of that world that viewers don't get to see at home, and screenwriter Mark Boal said that's often when the best memories are made.

"It is special every time, but again the greatest thing about it is you get in these rooms and you get to meet people and spend time with people that are usually pretty inaccessible," he said. "To be able to sit down with some of my heroes, that's really the best part about it, to be honest."

The 85th annual Academy Awards will be held Sunday, Feb. 24, in Los Angeles.