So it’s that time of the year again with Oscar nominations just around the corner (January the 9th to be exact). I’ve decided to attempt to predict every category, with Film Actually running a great prediction contest over on his blog.
I haven’t seen a lot of these films, primarily Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings Playbook and Django Unchained, which makes some of the predictions guesswork, however I feel I have a pretty good grasp on what’s likely to happen thanks to following Oscar discussion and the odds pretty heavily. I’ll order my rankings too but my winners predictions will come after the nomination period.
Here are my predictions in every group, with a little commentary for some key categories!
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Best Picture
1. Lincoln
2. Zero Dark Thirty
3. Argo
4. Les Miserables
5. Silver Linings Playbook
6. Life of Pi
7. Django Unchained
8. Moonrise Kingdom
9. Beasts of the Southern Wild
I’m feeling pretty good about 9 nominees and it’s safe to say the first 7 are basically locked in at this time. 8th/9th/10th spots will be a battle between Moonrise, Beasts, The Master, Skyfall and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for mine. It would surprise me greatly to see anything else sneak in (ie Amour, Flight, The Sessions). I personally think Moonrise will get in and it’s mainly that 9th spot that’s up for grabs.
Best Director
1. Steven Speilberg
2. Kathryn Bigelow
3. Ben Affleck
4. Ang Lee
5. Tom Hooper
Lock the top 3 in and even Ang Lee as well. I have no idea who will get that 5th spot, I honestly feel even Wes Anderson or Russell could sneak in over Hooper or QT.
Best Actor
1. Daniel Day-Lewis
2. Denzel Washington
3. Hugh Jackman
4. Bradley Cooper
5. John Hawkes
Again, I’m pretty confident on those first 4. Hawkes vs Phoenix will be interesting indeed.
Best Actress
1. Jennifer Lawrence
2. Jessica Chastain
3. Naomi Watts
4. Marion Cotillard
5. Emannuelle Riva
Best Supporting Actor
1. Tommy Lee Jones
2. Phillip Seymour Hoffman
3. Leonardo Di Caprio
4. Robert DeNiro
5. Alan Arkin
Best Supporting Actress
1. Anne Hathaway
2. Helen Hunt
3. Maggie Smith
4. Amy Adams
5. Sally Field
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
1. Lincoln
2. Argo
3. Siver Linings Playbook
4. Les Miserables
5. The Sessions
Writing (Original Screenplay)
1. Zero Dark Thirty
2. Django Unchained
3. The Master
4. Flight
5. Moonrise Kingdom
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Animated Feature Film
1. Frankenweenie
2. Wreck-It Ralph
3. Brave
4. Paranorman
5. Rise of the Guardians
While Le Tableau has some high praise, I think Rise of the Guardians may hold it off. A very open category for nominations but also for the win.
Documentary (Feature)
1. Searching for Sugar Man
2. The Gatekeepers
3. The Imposter
4. How to Survive a Plague
5. This is Not a Film
Foreign Language
1. Amour
2. The Intouchables
3. Kon-Tiki
4. A Royal Affair
5. No
Cinematography
1. Life of Pi
2. Skyfall
3. Anna Karenina
4. The Master
5. Zero Dark Thirty
Film Editing
1. Zero Dark Thirty
2. Argo
3. Lincoln
4. Life of Pi
5. Les Miserables
Music (Original Score)
1. Life of Pi
2. Lincoln
3. Beasts of the Southern Wild
4. Cloud Atlas
5. Anna Karenina
Music (Original Song)
1. Skyfall (Skyfall)
2. Suddenly (Les Miserables)
3. Learn me Right (Brave)
4. Pis Lullaby (Life of Pi)
5. Strange Love (Frankenweenie)
Sound Mixing
1. The Impossible
2. Skyfall
3. Flight
4. Zero Dark Thirty
5. Les Miserables
Sound Editing
1. Zero Dark Thirty
2. The Impossible
3. Les Miserables
4. Flight
5. Skyfall
Production Design
1. Anna Karenina
2. Life of Pi
3. Lincoln
4. Zero Dark Thirty
5. Les Miserables
Visual Effects
1. Life of Pi
2. The Avengers
3. Prometheus
4. The Hobbit
5. The Dark Knight Rises
Make Up
1. Lincoln
2. Hitchcock
3. The Hobbit
Costume Design
1. Anna Karenina
2. Lincoln
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. Django Unchained
5. Les Miserables -
What films do you think will get nominated for Best Picture? Any surprises in the acting categories?
Great choices!
Haha Cheers mate! These will be my official predictions for the competition too, I won’t be changing them from here
Will be quite fun seeing everyone’s attempts.
Cool. I’ve already seen some fascinating predictions already!
You missed a category! Don’t forget your Costume Design predictions.
Interesting predictions! You have faith in some thing I don’t/don’t want to have faith in
I just hope Washington and DiCaprio won’t miss out and that Leo wins, he tries so hard 
Denzel is basically locked in, I’m very confident in that! Not sure if Leo will win, I definitely don’t want him to as I have money on Tommy Lee
I’m really bad at guessing and predicting Oscars, so it’s interesting to read these kinds of posts and I do have to admit, a lot of them make sense.
This is my first year with serious predictions so I’ll see how I go haha, I have followed the betting odds and discussion extremely closely though!
The Oscars are so hard to predict, but I think you’re picks are pretty accurate. While I’d love to see it, I wonder about Moonrise for Best Picture. I think The Master is more likely to get love from the academy. Of course, when I consider what else might get in there instead, nothing jumps out. I also think QT will get a Best Director nomination, but it would be as the 4th or 5th spot. Nice work.
Thanks for your thoughts Dan! I think I may be a little biased with Moonrise Kingdom, it’s really interesting to see who fills those last few spots.
I’m starting to think Hooper is looking like missing out, but I would be lying if I said I knew who was going to get nominated.
I swear. LEO2012. PLEASE??? He was so tremendous playing such a nasty villain. I’m really rooting for him. I’d also like to see some appreciate from the Academy for Q. Wallis and Dwight Henry…for non-actors…damn…they surprised the hell out of me.
I’m really anticipating Django now! Out on the 24th here, I’m a big Leo fan so there is a good chance I will be cheering for him too. I didn’t love Beasts but Q Wallis was great, it would be more than deserving for her to get a nomination that looked like it was locked up until a few weeks ago.