Two Tickets For... Our Oscars Analysis & Predictions: Best Picture & Full Predictions!

Andrew: Hello readers! All week long leading up to this Sunday's 85th Academy Awards, Sarah and I have been discussing some of the acting categories, the screenplay categories, the directing category and a couple others, but it's all been leading up to the big one - Best Picture. Remember, four years ago after many people thought Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight got snubbed in this category, the Academy made the drastic change to up the number of nominees to 10. After two years of that, with some thinking the category was too bloated, the Academy changed the rules again so that between five and 10 films could be nominated based on first place votes. Even so, a total of nine films were nominated for Best Picture last year and we have the same number in 2013. 

BEST PICTURE

The nominees for Best Picture are:

- Amour

- Argo

- Beasts of the Southern Wild

- Django Unchained

- Les Miserables

- Life of Pi

- Lincoln

- Silver Linings Playbook

- Zero Dark Thirty

A: Sarah, we saw all of the nominated films except for Amour, and we follow the awards that lead up to the Oscars relatively closely. Taking everything in to account, even though there are a whopping nine nominees, which ones do you think we can whittle it down to that actually have a chance at winning?

Two Tickets For... Our Oscars Analysis & Predictions: Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song & Best Visual Effects

Andrew: Hello readers! It's that time again where Sarah and I finally start breaking down the nominees for the 85th Academy Awards that will be held on Sunday, February 24th! Last year we did it in a pretty basic way and it seemed to go over pretty well, and we really don't want to over-do it this year, so we'll stick to a relatively similar format. 

A difference this year, though, will be the order in which we break down the different categories. Starting with this post, we will break down the Oscar nominees in the following categories on these days:

Monday, February 18th: Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song and Best Visual Effects

Tuesday, February 19th: Best Original & Adapted Screenplays, and Best Director

Wednesday, February 20th: Best Supporting Actor & Actress

Thursday, February 21st: Best Actor & Actress

Friday, February 22nd: Best Picture and full list of predictions

So Sarah, let's kick off our analysis and predictions for this year's Oscars, shall we?

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

The nominees for Best Animated Feature are:

- Brave (Pixar)

- Wreck-It Ralph (Disney Animations)

- Frankenweenie (Disney Animations)

- ParaNorman (Laika)

- The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Aardman Animations)

Sarah's Top Ten Films of 2012! (And Andrew's Bottom Five!)

Sarah: Hello movie lovers and Happy New Year! We are so looking forward to the new year and all the great new movies that it has to offer! I gotta say, I'm pretty excited that the world didn't end because we would have seriously missed out on some good ones. So in response to the new year, Andrew and I are going to be looking back a little and bring you each of our favorite films from 2012. There will probably be some overlap but I can guarantee that we liked some movies for very different reasons.

Like we did with our two Top Ten List of 2012 So Far, we have some criteria for these lists: the films included have to be films we’ve actually seen and reviewed, and they had to be films that were released in theatres for public consumption in the United States during the 2012 calendar year. If you don't see a movie on this list, you can check it against our Reviews page and it's possible we just didn't see it, so it didn't qualify for our list.

At the bottom of my list you'll also be able to find Andrew's Bottom Five of 2012. You'll have to check out his Top Ten list to see what my bottom five were. Okay! I'm going to do my list in the countdown method, after the jump. Here we go...

A Six Pack Of... Movies We're Still Looking Forward To In 2012

Andrew: Hello readers! Sorry that we've been a little quiet the past few days, been a little busy with the day-jobs. We wanted to break that silence with a new Six-Pack, and it dawned on us today that the year 2012 is going to be OVER in just 7 weeks, but there are still a LOT of movies that will be coming out between now and then that we're very excited to see! So we put the two together, and now, for you reading enjoyment, A Six-Pack Of Movies We're Still Looking Forward To In 2012!

1.) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (December 7^th)

Sarah: I'm going to do this by date and the first movie that I am going to start with is Hyde Park on Hudson. This movie is about the love affair between Franklin Roosevelt and his distant cousin, Margaret Suckley. The story centers around a weekend spent in upstate New York when the King and Queen of England came to visit. Starring Bill Murray as FDR, Laura Linney as Margaret, along with Olivia Williams, Olivia Colman and Samuel West, this is one that I have been really looking forward to ever since I saw the first trailer for it. I love period piece movies so this, of course, was right up my alley. We haven't really had a lot of movies where FDR has been the star so it will be interesting to see a different side of a famous President. I am excited to see how Linney and Murray play off each other. The one concern that I have it that it could be a bit of a snoozer, but I'm really hoping that's not the case!

Official Trailer for Hyde Park on Hudson