Final 2014 Oscar Nomination Predictions

Adapted Screenplay

The two possible alternates here are Terence Winter’s The Wolf of Wall Street screenplay and Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber’s script for The Spectacular Now. Wolf is the one I would be least surprised making the cut as a lot depends on how much the Academy liked August: Osage County.

John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)
Billy Ray (Captain Phillips)
Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke (Before Midnight)
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope (Philomena)
Tracy Letts (August: Osage County)

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Original Screenplay

I could see any one of these top three taking home the Oscar, but the hard part here was leaving Joel and Ethan Coen’s screenplay for Inside Llewyn Davis on the bench.

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

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Animated Feature Film

I feel confident in the top three nominees here and wouldn’t even be surprised to only see three nominees in this category altogether as the final two are tough to predict. Personally I thought Ernest & Celestine was the best of the lot followed by Frozen and Despicable Me 2, but if the first Despicable Me couldn’t get a nomination what chance does the second have and did anyone even watch Ernest & Celestine?

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Documentary (feature)

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Foreign Language Film

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Film Editing

A very important category when it comes to predicting Best Picture as not many movies go on to win Best Picture without a Film Editing nomination. In fact, the only film I have nominated here that isn’t among my Best Picture nominees is Rush… because it deserves it.

Alfonso CuarÃ³n abd Mark Sanger (Gravity)
Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers (American Hustle)
Joe Walker (12 Years a Slave)
Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill (Rush)
Thelma Schoonmaker (The Wolf of Wall Street)

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Original Score

If the Golden Globes of all organizations can manage to award Alexander Ebert‘s far superior score for All is Lost maybe the Academy can too. As for the rest of the nominees here, most are based on name and popularity alone as I would love to add JÃ³hann JÃ³hannsson‘s Prisoners score or even M83’s Oblivion score, the latter, however, I never even believed had a chance for a second.

Hans Zimmer (12 Years a Slave)
Alexander Ebert (All is Lost)
Steven Price (Gravity)
Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks)
John Williams (The Book Thief)

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Original Song

U2’s song for Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom took the Golden Globe, but I fully expect Idina Menzel’s “Let it Go” from Frozen to take home the Oscar. As far as nomination alternates, it would be great to see “So You Know What It’s Like” from Short Term 12 make the cut, but that seems to be as unlikely as “Ladies from Tampa” making the cut last year.