Oscars 2014

It's Oscar day! This is the one day of the year when I actually use Twitter (aside from occasional outraged comments).

In preparation for the big event, here's my predictions.

Disclaimer #1: I never see nearly as many of the nominated films as I want, in which case my guesses are usually due to public discourse.
Disclaimer #2: Some of these are actually more along the lines of things I want to win rather than what I think will actually win. Sometimes I'll distinguish between the two, sometimes I will not.
Disclaimer #3: Occasionally, I won't even really care what wins. I reserve the right not to mention when that's the case.
Disclaimer #4: I have a bad feeling about the accuracy of my predictions this year. I certainly wouldn't put any money on them.

And away we go!

Best Picture

• American Hustle


• Captain Phillips


• Dallas Buyers Club


• Gravity - Rooting for.


• Her


• Nebraska


• Philomena


• 12 Years a Slave- Predicted Winner


• The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor in a Leading Role

• Christian Bale (American Hustle) - Potential Upset


• Bruce Dern (Nebraska)


• Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)


• Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) - Rooting for.


• Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) - Predicted Winner

Best Actress in a Leading Role

• Amy Adams (American Hustle) - Predicted Winner


• Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)


• Sandra Bullock (Gravity)


• Judi Dench (Philomena)


• Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

• Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) - Potential Upset


• Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)


• Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)


• Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) - Potential Upset


• Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) - Predicted Winner

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)


• Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)


• Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) - Predicted Winner


• Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)


• June Squibb (Nebraska) - Potential Upset

Best Animated Feature

• The Croods (Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco, Kristine Belson)


• Despicable Me 2 (Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin, Chris Meledandri)


• Ernest & Celestine (Benjamin Renner, Didier Brunner)


• Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho) - Predicted Winner


• The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki)

Best Cinematography

• The Grandmaster (Philippe Le Sourd)


• Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki) - Predicted Winner. Rooting For.


• Inside Llewyn Davis (Bruno Delbonnel)


• Nebraska (Phedon Papamichael) - Potential Upset.


• Prisoners (Roger A. Deakins)

Best Costume Design

• American Hustle (Michael Wilkinson) - Predicted Winner.


• The Grandmaster (William Chang Suk Ping)


• The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin) - Predicted Winner. (I think it's a toss-up. Maybe even a rare tie?)


• The Invisible Woman (Michael O'Connor)


• 12 Years a Slave (Patricia Norris)

Best Directing

• American Hustle (David O. Russell) - Predicted Winner.


• Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón) - Rooting for.


• Nebraska (Alexander Payne)


• 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)


• The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)

Best Documentary Feature

• The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sørensen) - Predicted Winner, just because I have to pick something.


• Cutie and the Boxer (Zachary Heinzerling, Lydia Dean Pilcher)


• Dirty Wars (Richard Rowley, Jeremy Scahill)


• The Square (Jehane Noujaim, Karim Amer)


• 20 Feet from Stardom (Nominees to be determined)

Best Documentary Short

• CaveDigger (Jeffrey Karoff)


• Facing Fear (Jason Cohen)


• Karama Has No Walls (Sara Ishaq)


• The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (Malcolm Clarke, Nicholas Reed) - Predicted Winner, just because I have to pick something.


• Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall (Edgar Barens)

Best Film Editing

• American Hustle (Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers, Alan Baumgarten)


• Captain Phillips (Christopher Rouse)


• Dallas Buyers Club (John Mac McMurphy, Martin Pensa)


• Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger) - Predicted Winner.


• 12 Years a Slave (Joe Walker)

Best Foreign Language Film

• The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium) - Predicted Winner just because I have to pick something.


• The Great Beauty (Italy)


• The Hunt (Denmark)


• The Missing Picture (Cambodia)


• Omar (Palestine)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews)


• Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (Stephen Prouty)


• The Lone Ranger (Joel Harlow, Gloria Pasqua-Casny) - Predicted Winner

Best Original Score

• The Book Thief (John Williams) - Predicted Winner.


• Gravity (Steven Price)


• Her (William Butler, Owen Pallett)


• Philomena (Alexandre Desplat)


• Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)

Best Original Song

• Happy (Despicable Me 2)


• Let It Go (Frozen) - Predicted Winner.


• The Moon Song (Her)


• Ordinary Love (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)

Best Production Design

• American Hustle (Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler)


• Gravity (Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woollard)


• The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn) - Predicted Winner.


• Her (K.K. Barrett, Gene Serdena)


• 12 Years a Slave (Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker)

Best Animated Short Film

• Feral (Daniel Sousa, Dan Golden) - Predicted Winner.


• Get a Horse! (Lauren MacMullan, Dorothy McKim)


• Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz, Alexandre Espigares)


• Possessions (Shuhei Morita)


• Room on the Broom (Max Lang, Jan Lachauer)

Best Live Action Short Film

• Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me) (Esteban Crespo)


• Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything) (Xavier Legrand, Alexandre Gavras)


• Helium (Anders Walter, Kim Magnusson)


• Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) (Selma Vilhunen, Kirsikka Saari)


• The Voorman Problem (Mark Gill, Baldwin Li) - Predicted Winner.

Best Sound Editing

• All Is Lost (Steve Boeddeker, Richard Hymns)


• Captain Phillips (Oliver Tarney)


• Gravity (Glenn Freemantle) - Predicted Winner.


• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Brent Burge, Chris Ward)


• Lone Survivor (Wylie Stateman)

Best Sound Mixing

• Captain Phillips (Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro)


• Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, Chris Munro) - Predicted Winner.


• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, Tony Johnson)


• Inside Llewyn Davis (Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland)


• Lone Survivor (Andy Koyama, Beau Borders, David Brownlow)

Best Visual Effects

• Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould) - Predicted Winner, rooting for.


• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds)


• Iron Man 3 (Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash, Dan Sudick)


• The Lone Ranger (Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams, John Frazier)


• Star Trek Into Darkness (Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton)

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke)


• Captain Phillips (Billy Ray)


• Philomena (Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope)


• 12 Years a Slave (John Ridley) - Predicted Winner.


• The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter)

Best Original Screenplay

• American Hustle (Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell) - Predicted Winner,


• Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)


• Dallas Buyers Club (Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack)


• Her (Spike Jonze) - Potential Upset #1.


• Nebraska (Bob Nelson) - Potential Upset #2.