86th Annual Academy Awards Predictions

Oscar night is upon us once again, so it's time for me to start pretending I know what I'm talking about and venture my guesses as to what's going to take home tonight's big awards! The animation awards are listed first, then the rest of the categories below that.

Last year's Oscar's were an incredibly close call for animation (with Pixar's Brave eventually edging out Disney's Wreck-It Ralph). This year's are not. 2013 was more of a lacklustre year for animation, and the clear winner has been Disney's musical behemoth Frozen. The film has been receiving critical praise all over the place, has just passed $1 billion worldwide - and it won 12 A113Animation Awards. Just saying. The only real threat could be Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, but due to its fairly limited US run, it's likely that that film will have flown slightly under the Academy's radar. Look for Frozen to take home the prize.

With regards to the short animation prize, none of the nominees are as talked about as Disney's Mickey Mouse film, Get a Horse! That would seem likely to skew votes towards the short, giving Mickey Mouse his first win in 72 years, and Walt Disney Animation Studios their second Animated Short Film Oscar in 2 years.

It seems likely that Disney could take home a third Oscar on the night too, with "Let It Go" (being performed live on the show by the voice of Elsa herself, Idina Menzel) seeming locked to win. Only U2's "Ordinary Love" (from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom) seems to be a possible threat to that.

On the live-action side, slavery drama 12 Years a Slave seems a sure thing for Best Picture, with Gravity director Alfonso Cuarón likely to take the Directing gong. Gravity will almost certainly take home the Visual Effects award, and probably Best Original Score (although personally we're rooting for Thomas Newman's soundtrack for Saving Mr. Banks for that) and Best Cinematography too. The top acting awards seem pretty likely to be going to Matthew McConaughey and Cate Blanchett.

What we think will win is in bold, what we think should win is underlined, and what we think might win is in blue (where applicable). The winners will be highlighted in gold after the fact. If there's no prediction ventured, I've not the foggiest about the category/haven't seen any or many of the nominees.

Best Animated Feature:

• The Croods
• Despicable Me 2
• Ernest & Celestine
• Frozen
• The Wind Rises

Best Animated Short Film:

• Feral
• Get a Horse!
• Mr. Hublot
• Possessions
• Room on the Broom

Best Picture:

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

Best Director:

• Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity
• Steve McQueen - 12 Years a Slave
• Alexander Payne - Nebraska
• David O. Russell - American Hustle
• Martin Scorsese - The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor:

• Christian Bale - American Hustle
• Bruce Dern - Nebraska
• Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street
• Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave
• Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress:

• Amy Adams - American Hustle
• Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
• Sandra Bullock - Gravity
• Judi Dench - Philomena
• Meryl Streep - August: Osage County

Best Supporting Actor:

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

Best Supporting Actress:

• Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine
• Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle
• Lupita Nyong’o - 12 Years a Slave
• Julia Roberts - August: Osage County
• June Squibb - Nebraska

Best Original Screenplay:

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

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• Before Midnight - Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
• Captain Phillips - Billy Ray
• Philomena - Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
• 12 Years a Slave - John Ridley
• The Wolf of Wall Street - Terence Winter

Best Foreign Language Film:

• The Broken Circle Breakdown
• The Great Beauty
• The Hunt
• The Missing Picture
• Omar

Best Documentary Feature:

• The Act of Killing
• Cutie and the Boxer
• Dirty Wars
• The Square
• 20 Feet From Stardom

Best Documentary Short Film:

• CaveDigger
• Facing Fear
• Karama Has No Walls
• The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
• Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

Best Live-Action Short Film:

• Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)
• Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)
• Helium
• Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
• The Voorman Problem

Best Cinematography:

• The Grandmaster - Philippe Le Sourd
• Gravity - Emmanuel Lubezki
• Inside Llewyn Davis - Bruno Delbonnel
• Nebraska - Phedon Papamichael
• Prisoners - Roger A. Deakins

Best Visual Effects:

• Gravity - Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk and Neil Corbould
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
• Iron Man 3 - Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
• The Lone Ranger - Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
• Star Trek Into Darkness - Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

Best Film Editing:

• American Hustle - Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
• Captain Phillips - Christopher Rouse
• Dallas Buyers Club - John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
• Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
• 12 Years a Slave - Joe Walker

Best Original Score:

• The Book Thief - John Williams
• Gravity - Stephen Price
• Her - William Butler and Owen Pallett
• Philomena - Alexandre Desplat
• Saving Mr. Banks - Thomas Newman

Best Original Song:

• "Happy" from Despicable Me 2, music and lyrics by Pharrell Williams
• "Let It Go" from Frozen, music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
• "The Moon Song" from Her, music by Karen O; lyrics by Karen O and Spike Jonze
• "Ordinary Love" from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, lyrics by Paul Hewson

Best Sound Editing:

• All Is Lost - Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
• Captain Phillips - Oliver Tarney
• Gravity - Glenn Freemantle
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Brent Burge and Chris Ward
• Lone Survivor - Wylie Stateman

Best Sound Mixing:

• Captain Phillips - Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
• Gravity - Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
• Inside Llewyn Davis - Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
• Lone Survivor - Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

• Dallas Buyers Club - Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
• Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa - Stephen Prouty
• The Lone Ranger - Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

Best Costume Design:

• American Hustle - Michael Wilkinson
• The Grandmaster - William Chang Suk Ping
• The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin
• The Invisible Woman - Michael O’Connor
• 12 Years a Slave - Patricia Norris