All That’s Epic’s 2014 Oscar Nominee Predictions

With The Golden Globes now behind us, film fans can focus their attention on the 86th Annual Academy Awards, which will take place in Hollywood on March 2nd. The nominees will be announced this Thursday. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the possible nominees and who we think will get some good news early Thursday morning. With so many great movies and performances, it’s hard to predict nominations but it can be fun so let’s take some guesses. The following are the All That’s Epic’s predictions for the nominees in six major categories.

Best Actor

This year there were amazing performances by some newcomers and some people who we expect to deliver amazing performances. That is what makes this such a hard category to nail down. Will Bruce Dern get a nod for Nebraska? Will The Academy give the weight changes by Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey a nomination? Also, there are the actors that carried their respective movies. Joaquin Phoenix and Leonardo DiCaprio both were the crucial leads in their films and both hit a home run. Here is who we think will get the nominations:

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)
Chiwetelu Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Joaquin Phoenix (Her)

Best Actress

Things are a bit clearer in this category with some Oscar legacies in the field. However it is sorting through them that makes it difficult. Meryl Streep could return, Sandra Bullock was magnificent in a difficult role, and Emma Thompson took on her role with a braveness and feistiness that others could not portray. However, don’t discount anyone on the cast of American Hustle as previous David O. Russell films have proved. Here is our nomination list:

Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Amy Adams (American Hustle)

Best Supporting Actor

Expect familiar names to litter this category along with some people like Jared Leto who hasn’t acted since 2009 and one of the pirates from Captain Phillips who was a limo driver this time last year. Tom Hanks has a shot at two nominations with his portrayal of Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks. George Clooney was great in his small role in Gravity. I’m predicting a bit of a surprise for Jonah Hill who will prove that he isn’t just a comedy movie star. He will be a two-time Oscar nominee. Here are our nomination predictions:

Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Best Supporting Actress

This is a category with a clear favorite in Jennifer Lawrence. However there are other contenders that could surprise us on Oscar night. Expect some other familiar names to be nominated including one of the only nominations for Lee Daniels’ The Butler. We could also see just how much The Academy liked Dallas Buyers Club with Jennifer Garner possibly sneaking in here. Same goes for Sally Hawkins and Blue Jasmine. Here is our prediction for Best Supporting Actress:

Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)
June Squibb (Nebraska)
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
Oprah Winfrey (Lee Daniels’ The Butler)

Best Director

Probably the easiest category to predict and one that has a clear favorite in the field is the Best Director category. All of these acclaimed directors have had great careers and continue to make tremendous films. There could be someone sneak in, Alexander Payne for Nebraska, maybe even the Coen brothers for Inside Llewyn Davis. Other possibilities are Spike Jonze or Woody Allen but I don’t see them cracking this list. Here is our prediction for Best Director nominees:

Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
David O. Russell (American Hustle)
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Best Picture

The most interesting and most diverse category is always Best Picture and this year is no exception. With that said, I think this is a two horse race when March 2nd arrives. You’ll have to wait until we draw closer to that date to find out which films I’m talking about, but based on previous award shows, it’s not hard to figure it out. The Academy has changed the rules about how many films can be nominated for the past couple of years. The current rule is that somewhere between 5-10 films can be nominated, however no picture can be nominated that doesn’t get at least five percent of the total votes cast. Will voters be turned off to the crudeness of The Wolf of Wall Street? Does the weak story override the tremendous special effects of Gravity? Can Lee Daniels’ The Butler sneak in, or how about the true life story of Dallas Buyers Club? Here are the films that we think will get nominated for the night’s biggest prize:

American Hustle
Gravity
The Wolf of Wall Street
Her
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips
Philomena
Nebraska

So there you have it, the best guesses for what films and filmmakers will get their names called on Thursday morning. Many of the 2014 Oscar predictions are based on who is winning at some of the smaller award shows and what is hot at the moment. Will they be hot with Academy voters? We will all find out soon.