My Predictions for the 85th Academy Awards Nominations.

                    Well its that time of the year once again when critics or bloggers like me spend their days thinking about movies and their Oscars chances. There are just a few days left in the announcement for the Academy Awards nominations. The entire awards season comes to an end with the Oscars and as much as i see and appreciate critics awards individually, it all just seems moving towards this one prestigious event. I always have a love-hate relationship with the Oscars but i always look forward to them. 2012 Oscars race have been very interesting, one of the best ones that i can remember simply because there are so many good movies and none of them is a sure-fire frontrunner, nominee or winner so far. There are too many odds against every movie that there is. Argo and Zero Dark Thirty are both politics related movies but one is pretty entertaining account and the other one is "too harsh" as most of them say. If Lincoln has too much talky scenes with men sitting around and talking history and politics then Les Miserables is too daring and bold adaptation of a beloved musical. I have been changing my predictions a lot from the past few weeks, i am not sure which movie is going to make it in which category. As always, i had lots of trouble predicting the technical categories but anyway here is my predictions for the Oscars based on the precursor awards stats, my gut feelings and the usual awful academy politics.

Best Picture: (I'll go with 9)

1. Lincoln
2. Argo
3. Zero Dark Thirty
4. Silver Linings Playbook
5. Les Miserables
6. Life of Pi
7. Django Unchained
8. Beasts of the Southern Wild
9. Moonrise Kingdom

Best Director:

1. Ben Affleck, Argo
2. Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
3. Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
4. Ang Lee, Life of Pi
5. David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Actor in a Lead Role Male:

1. Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
2. Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
3. John Hawkes, The Sessions
4. Denzel Washington, Flight
5. Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Actor in a Lead Role Female:

1. Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
2. Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
3. Naomi Watts, The Impossible
4. Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
5. Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone

Best Actor in a Supporting Role Male:

1. Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
2. Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
3. Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
4. Alan Arkin, Argo
5. Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained

Best Actor in a Supporting Role Female:

1. Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
2. Sally Field, Lincoln
3. Helen Hunt, The Sessions
4. Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy
5. Amy Adams, The Master

Best Original Screenplay:

1. Zero Dark Thirty
2. Moonrise Kingdom
3. The Master
4. Django Unchained
5. Amour

Best Adapted Screenplay:

1. Lincoln
2. Argo
3. Silver Linings Playbook
4. Life of Pi
5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Best Foreign Film:

1. Amour
2. The Intouchables
3. A Royal Affair
4. No
5. War Witch

Best Animated Film:

1. Frankenweenie
2. ParaNorman
3. Brave
4. Wreck-It Ralph
5. Rise of the Guardians

Best Documentary:

1. Searching for Sugar Man
2. How to Survive a Plague
3. The Invisible War
4. The Gatekeepers
5. The House I Live In

Best Film Editing:

1. Zero Dark Thirty
2. Argo
3. Lincoln
4. Silver Linings Playbook
5. Skyfall

Best Cinematography:

1. Life of Pi
2. Skyfall
3. Lincoln
4. Zero Dark Thirty
5. Django Unchained

Best Production Design:

1. Les Miserables
2. Anna Karenina
3. Lincoln
4. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
5. Django Unchained

Best Visual Effects:

1. Life of Pi
2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3. Prometheus
4. Cloud Atlas
5. The Avengers

Best Costume Design:

1. Anna Karenina
2. Les Miserables
3. Mirror Mirror
4. Lincoln
5. A Royal Affair

Best Makeup and Hairstyle:

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2. Lincoln
3. Les Miserables

Best Score:

1. Life of Pi
2. Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. Lincoln
4. Argo
5. Anna Karenina

Best Sound Editing:

1. Life of Pi
2. Zero Dark Thirty
3. Lincoln
4. The Dark Knight Rises
5. Skyfall

Best Sound Mixing:

1. Les Miserables
2. Life of Pi
3. Skyfall
4. Zero Dark Thirty
5. The Dark Knight Rises

Best Song:

1. Skyfall, Skyfall
2. Suddenly, Les Miserables
3. Touch the Sky, Brave
4. Song of the Lonely Mountain, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
5. Pi’s Lullaby, Life of Pi