2013 Oscar Predictions

The 85th Academy Awards are this coming Sunday, and they're already looking to be a lot more interesting than last year's.  The results of past awards shows this year have made it virtually impossible to say exactly who will take home the big awards, but I'll still make my predictions anyway.  Please note: I have not seen many of these movies so most of these are blind guesses.  Also, I won't talk about Best Short Film-Live Action, Best Documentary as I know next to nothing about the nominees in these categories, nor will I talk about technical awards.

Best Picture:
My initial pick for Best Picture was Lincoln, but now that Argo has been a hit at the awards shows, I'm thinking that the Ben Affleck film could take the show.  Again, it's very hard to say exactly but out of all the films nominated, I'm going with a toss-up between Lincoln and Argo.

Best Actor:
Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln.  This is one of the easier predictions seeing as Day-Lewis has been garnering so much recognition for his portrayal of America's sixteenth President.  The only other person I can see winning is Denzel Washington for Flight, but that would be a long-shot.

Best Actress:
While I would love to see Jennifer Lawrence or Quvenzhane Wallis win for Silver Linings Playbook and Beasts of the Southern Wild, respectively, I have a feeling that Emmanuelle Riva will win for Amour.  Again, this is mostly due to the fact that she has gotten widespread acclaim for her role, and has been sweeping awards shows.

Best Supporting Actor:
This one is also a toss-up.  While it's more likely that Alan Arkin or Philip Seymour Hoffman will win for Argo and The Master, respectively, I would love to see Christoph Waltz win for Django Unchained.  He was easily one of the best parts of the movie, and it would really help him gain some more recognition in America.

Best Supporting Actress:
This one's a no-brainer; Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables.  Again, her portrayal of Fantine was easily the best part of the movie.  With the recognition she's gotten and the awards she's already picked up, it's easy to see her winning this award with no problem.

Best Director:
This one is also very easy: Steven Spielberg for Lincoln.  It would have been harder to decide if Ben Affleck had been nominated, but enough has been said about his snub.  As it is, I am fairly confident that Steven Spielberg will take home the award.

Best Writing:
In the Original Screenplay category I would love to see Django Unchained win.  This was some of Tarantino's best writing I've seen yet.  However, Zero Dark Thirty and Amour seem more likely to win.  As for Adapted Screenplay, it's another toss-up between Lincoln and Argo.

Best Foreign Language Film:
Amour will win this one.  There's not much else to say about this this category or the other nominees so let's just move on.

Best Animated Feature Film:
Yet another category where I have absolutely no idea who will win.  It would be great to see Frankenweenie or ParaNorman win as it will be a tremendous victory for stop-motion animation.  I wouldn't be displeased if Wreck-It-Ralph wins as it will be the first time a video game based movie will have won an award like this.  The only nominee I don't want to win is Brave.  Not that I didn't like the movie, I just thought the other nominees were much better.  Studio Ghibli's The Secret World of Arrietty was much more deserving of a nomination.

Best Animated Short Film:
I'm really hoping Disney's Paperman will win this award, as it was very creative and, in some ways, groundbreaking in mixing traditional animation with computer animation.  I was also hoping to see Pixar's La Luna get nominated, as I thought that was much better, but I still enjoyed Paperman.

I could be completely right, or I could be completely wrong in these predictions.  My guess is as good as yours.  The 85th Academy Awards will take place Sunday, February 24 at 7 pm Eastern and 4 pm Pacific on ABC.