Nearly a month from now the Academy Awards will present their winners and all movie-lovers, self-proclaimed critics, and gamblers can begin speculating on next year's potential. But what we have at hand this year is an amazing batch of movies with no single title, or even two titles, attracting all of the buzz. There is no battle between 'Avatar' and 'The Hurt Locker.' There is no 'Godfather.' There is only an unobvious group vying for the Academy's votes.
So who will take the cake?
With other awards shows wrapping up and all wide releases open for public admiration, let's take a look at all the major categories for the 2013 Oscars.
2013 Academy Award Nominations (Prediction in Bold)
BEST SOUND MIXING
- Skyfall
- Lincoln
- Life of Pi
- Les Miserables
- Argo
History shows us that if a movie is nominated for Best Film and is included within technical categories, it will take the award. Here we have three Best Film nominees. But it is 'Life of Pi' that has garnered much adoration for its technical prowess. Expect it to bring home many of the technical awards much like 'Hugo' did last year. 'Les Mis' could slip in here with its masterwork of live recording.
BEST SOUND EDITING
- Skyfall
- Argo
- Zero Dark Thirty
- Life of Pi
- Django Unchained
Same goes for this category. Though, if 'Zero Dark Thirty' fails to pick up a win for Best Picture, the Academy could look to throw it a bone here.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
- Lincoln
- Anna Karenina
- Les Miserables
- Mirror Mirror
- Snow White and the Huntsman
'Les Mis' has a genuine shot at this award, but the gorgeous production value and attention to detail in 'Anna Karenina' aided its mixed reviews while 'Les Mis' left many disappointed and wishing more of the sets and costumes weren't constantly on a tight zoom.
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
- Life of Pi
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- Prometheus
- Snow White and the Huntsman
- The Avengers
Once again, expect 'Pi' (especially amongst these other nominations) to snag a win. Typically a Jackson affair with Middle-Earth would leave the competition behind. But this year's journey to 48 fps left a foul taste in many's mouth.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
- “Skyfall” – Skyfall
- “Suddenly” – Les Miserables
- “Pi’s Lullaby” – Life of Pi
- “Before My Time” – Chasing Ice
- “Everybody Needs a Best Friend” – Ted
This is very close to a lock for first-time nominee Adele. 'Skyfall' has been the only consistent nomination in this category for all awards shows and it deserves it. The most interesting aspect of this category is predicting the over/under on Seth MacFarlane musical numbers.
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
- Dario Marianelli – Anna Karenina
- Mychael Danna – Life of Pi
- Thomas Newman – Skyfall
- John Williams – Lincoln
- Alexandre Desplat – Argo
The Academy loves Dario Marianelli. But it loves John Williams more. This is the first category where we'll begin to see 'Lincoln's' pull at the show. In a year where there's no obvious choice, the Academy will most likely select the MOST obvious and Oscar-esque choice. Spielberg. 'Lincoln.'
BEST FILM EDITING
- William Goldenberg, Dylan Tichenor – Zero Dark Thirty
- William Goldenberg – Argo
- Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers – Silver Linings Playbook
- Michael Kahn – Lincoln
- Tim Squyers – Life of Pi
It's a minor trend that the film which succeeds in winning Best Editing goes on to win Best Picture. I don't expect that to occur this year but 'Argo' is an extremely well crafted film that should pick up a little bit of love from the town it owes its story.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
- Claudio Miranda – Life of Pi
- Roger Deakins – Skyfall
- Janusz Kaminski – Lincoln
- Robert Richardson – Django Unchained
- Seamus McGarvey – Anna Karenina
Roger Deakins deserves this award. I may be slightly blinded by how much he deserves this award. 'Pi' has the constraints of CGI heavy visuals and 'Anna' is gorgeous, but not AS gorgeous.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
- Lincoln
- Life of Pi
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- Anna Karenina
- Les Miserables
This remains 'The Hobbit's' greatest chance at an award. But once again, the 48 fps exposed too much of the actual production design for many. 'Les Mis' has no shot at a Best Picture win, but very well could take down 'Anna' and 'Lincoln' with its grandness.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
- The Gatekeepers
- How to Survive a Plague
- Searching for Sugar Man
- 5 Broken Cameras
- The Invisible War
These are all terrific movies. 'Searching' just has the right amount of buzz and intrigue to take this home. It's been the most public and highest grossing of the five nominations.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
- Frankenweenie
- Brave
- ParaNorman
- Wreck-It Ralph
- The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Look for Tim Burton to win his first statue. 'Ralph' has the best shot at beating the black and white stop animation film, but will most likely fall short. This was a year for above average but not great animated movies, and 'Frankenweenie' has just the right touch of old-Hollywood that should carry it through the finish line. (PS. If either 'Ralph' or 'Frankenweenie' win, it will mark the first Oscar win for a Disney Animation studio that doesn't involve Pixar.)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FEATURE
- Amour – Austria
- No – Chile
- A Royal Affair – Barbara
- Kon-Tiki – Norway
- War Witch - Canada
A lock. If you need an explanation, see the Best Picture nominations below.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
- Tony Kushner – Lincoln
- Chris Terrio – Argo
- David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
- David Magee – Life of Pi
- Lucy Alibar, Behn Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Historically accurate, surprisingly funny, and undeniably powerful. Tony Kushner did a fantastic job rendering this project as more than a docudrama with a high budget. Plus. Lincoln. Spielberg. Oscars.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
- Mark Boal – Zero Dark Thirty
- Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained
- Michael Haneke – Amour
- Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola – Moonrise Kingdom
- John Gatins – Flight
With 'Zero Dark Thirty' losing most of its momentum, QT should take home his second statue in this category, and deservingly so. He delivered a heart pounding, knee slapping, entirely original script that combines auterism and entertainment transcendentally.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables
- Helen Hunt – The Sessions
- Sally Field – Lincoln
- Amy Adams – The Master
- Jacki Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook
From the minute the trailer for 'Les Mis' was released, Anne Hathaway had this award.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
- Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook
- Alan Arkin – Argo
- Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
- Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained
The most studded category, 'Lincoln' should once again flex its muscles with the deft performance from TLJ. He epitomized great supporting character and brought an truly wonderful level of humor to a very serious film.
BEST ACTRESS
- Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty
- Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
- Quvenzhane Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild
- Naomi Watts – The Impossible
- Emmanuelle Riva – Amour
Chastain and Lawrence have been neck and neck this entire awards season. Both have been previously nominated. Both were amazing. But Lawrence has done more with her time and image in the past two months to augment her reputation and visibility. Her performance helped bring what could have been a forgetable dramedy to the top of many critic's lists. She wrangled a large character expertly.
BEST ACTOR
- Denzel Washington – Flight
- Hugh Jackman – Les Miserables
- Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
- Joauquin Phoenix - The Master
- Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
Another virtual lock. Danny Day embodies arguably America's most important presidents with poise, ferocity, and an acute ability to make everyone else on screen disappear.
BEST DIRECTOR
- Ang Lee – Life of Pi
- Steven Spielberg – Lincoln
- David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
- Michael Haneke – Amour
- Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
Five other directors could easily have been included on this list. But ultimately it won't matter because: Lincoln. Spielberg. Oscars.
BEST PICTURE
- Argo
- Amour
- Beasts of the Southern Wild
- Django Unchained
- Les Miserables
- Life of Pi
- Lincoln
- Silver Linings Playbook
- Zero Dark Thirty
It truly was a wonderful year for film. If any of these movies took the win I absolutely could not complain. While some films have little to no shot (Django, Les Mis, Life of Pi), others remain poised to give their team repeat wins or newcomer's glory. But the draw of 'Lincoln' will be too much for the other films. 'Zero Dark Thirty's' chances took a serious blow to the knee when Bigelow failed to garner a nomination. 'Silver Linings Playbook' was thrown FOUR acting nominations. This still won't be enough.
So once more I repeat.
Lincoln. Spielberg. Oscars.
Those are some serious names.
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