2014 Oscar Nomination Predictions!

Andrew: Hello readers! So we're right in the middle of that time period we mentioned where Sarah's still in Connecticut and I'm down in Atlanta. But tomorrow is a big day for us movie-lovers because tomorrow morning the nominees for the 86th Annual Academy Awards will be announced!

Now, Sarah's not going to be able to partake in this exercise and I'm not going to really be able to delve into my thinking behind these, but I did want to take the time and post my predictions for who and what I think will get nominated for the big categories tomorrow morning.

Let's start with the screenplay categories and finish with the big award.

Best Original Screenplay
American Hustle (David O. Russell & Eric Singer)
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)
Her (Spike Jonze)
Dallas Buyers Club (Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack)
Nebraska (Bob Nelson)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke)
Captain Phillips (Billy Ray)
12 Years a Slave (John Ridley)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter)
Philomena (Jeff Pope & Steve Coogan)

Best Supporting Actor
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Daniel Bruhl, Rush
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels' The Butler
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska

Best Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks

Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Spike Jonze, Her
Steve McQueen, 12 Years of Slave
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Picture
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Gravity
The Wolf of Wall Street
Captain Phillips
Her
Dallas Buyers Club
Saving Mr. Banks

So there ya have it! Took me a while to come up with those selections. I will say that it was tough for me to decide between Daniel Bruhl and Jonah Hill, for his performance in The Wolf of Wall Street, as well as whether or not Amy Adams and her great turn in American Hustle would beat out Meryl Streep for the fifth Best Actress nomination.

Ultimately I went with Bruhl for 2 reasons: Hill was nominated for his performance in Moneyball just two years ago while Bruhl would be a first-timer, and because Bruhl has received many plaudits for his performance as real-life Grand Prix racer Niki Lauda to the point that I think the Academy will give him the edge over Hill's over-the-top performance as an alternate version of a real person.

I also gave the edge to Meryl because...well...it's Meryl fricking Streep. My heart was telling me to go with Adams, but my head told me to go with the actress who has garnered the most acting nominations in Oscars history even though her respective film hasn't gotten nearly the adoration that Adams' has. And yes, Adams did win a Golden Globe this past Sunday while Streep did not, but the Hollywood Foreign Press and the Academy voters don't necessarily overlap so I'm not taking that into account too much.

Ok, dear readers! That's all for now, let's see how wrong I am come tomorrow morning! As always, thank you for reading!