My 2014 Oscar Predictions

Here they are: Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave: will win...... Best Actor: This should be a dead heat between Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street), but Hollywood will likely make their stellar annual screw-up this year by giving the statue to Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), whose best performance of his career was in Mud. Bruce Dern (Nebraska) and Christian Bale (American Hustle) gave strong performances, contributing to the strength of the category this year. The big question is: Why was Tom Hanks not a nominee?...... Best Actress: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) will win and should win, edging out Meryl Streep (August: Osage County). The performances of Amy Adams (American Hustle) and Judi Dench (Philomena) warranted nominations. Melissa McCarthy (The Heat) should have been nominated instead of Sandra Bullock (Gravity)...... Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) will win even though Barkhad Abdi is superb in "Captain Phillips". Bradley Cooper (American Hustle), Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, and Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)are the remaining nominees, although James Franco deserved acknowledgement here for "Spring Breakers"...... Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) will and should win, unless upset by "American Husttle's" Jennifer Lawrence. More distant nominations went to Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine), Julia Roberts (August: Osage County), and June Squibb (Nebraska...... Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón will probably win for "Gravity" over Steve McQueen who deserves equitable accolades for "12 Years a Slave". This is a strong category with other contenders being David O. Russell for "American Hustle", Alexander Payne for "Nebraska", and Martin Scorsese for "The Wolf of Wall Street"...... Best Animated Film "The Wind Rises" should win, and has only the slightest chance of upsetting "Frozen", this year's clear favorite. "Despicable Me 2", "The Croods", and "Ernest and Celestine" round out the category...... Best animated short: "Git a Horse"...... Foreign Language Film: "The Great Beauty" from Italy will be victorious over "The Broken Circle Breakdown" from Belgium, "The Hunt" from Denmark, "The Missing Picture" from Cambodia, and "Omar" from Palestine...... Best Documentary, Feature: "20 Feet from Stardom" will probably edge out "The Square" and "The Act of Killing" in a very strong category rounded out with nominations going to "Dirty Wars" and "Cutie and the Boxer"...... Best Documentary, Short Subject: "Facing Fear" stands a slight chance of upsetting "The Lady in Number 6", that I believe will win over it and "Cave Digger", "Karama Has No Walls", and "The Last Days of Private Jack Hall"...... Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay: "12 Years a Slave" by John Ridley will and should win with others being duly rewarded for "Before Midnight" (Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke), "Captain Phillips" (Billy Ray), "Philomena" (Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope), and "The Wolf of Wall Street" (Terence Winter)...... Best Writing, Original Screenplay: "American Hustle's" Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell will win with "Her" writer Spike Jonze being a possible upsetter, and a more distant possible deserver being Bob Nelson for "Nebraska". "Blue Jasmine" creator Woody Allen and "Dallas Buyers Club" writers Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack are recognized also in the group..... Visual Effects: Gravity will win...... Best Film Editing: The battle here is between "Gravity" (Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger) and "Captain Phillips (Christopher Rouse...... Best Cinematography: Gravity” Emmanuel Lubezki will probably win for "Gravity", although Bruno Delbonnel should win for “Inside Llewyn Davis”; and "12 Years a Slave" should have been nominated...... Best Production Design: "12 Years a Slave"...... Best Make-up and Hairstyling: The "Jackass" movie...... Music, Original Score: “Gravity”, Steven Price, will win. Hans Zimmer, had be been nominated here for "12 Years a Slave" would have been a formidable challenger and possible winner...... Music, Original Song: "Happy" from DESPICABLE ME 2 "Let It Go" from FROZEN will win. It would be nice if "The Moon Song" from HER would upset, but I don't think so.