The 2013 Academy Awards (Host: Seth McFarlane)
BY FRANKLIN P. LAVIOLA
The 85th Annual Academy Award nominations will be announced bright and early at 5:30 AM on Thursday, January 10. Before you place your bets, enjoy our predictions for which films, directors, actors, writers, editors, cinematographers, composers, designers, stylists and more will get the Oscar nod. In categories where predicted nominees are not listed in alphabetical order, they are listed in order of the likelihood of their nominations.
PICTURE
If five nominees …
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty
Silver Linings Playbook
Les Miserables
If six nominees …
Django Unchained
If seven nominees …
Life of Pi
If eight nominees …
If nine nominees …
Amour
If ten nominees …
Alternates:
Skyfall
The Dark Knight Rises
DIRECTOR
Ben Affleck, Argo
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Michael Haneke, Amour
Alternates:
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Tom Hooper, Les Miserables
ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Denzel Washington, Flight
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Alternates:
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Amour
Richard Gere, Arbitrage
ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Alternates:
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook
Leonardo Dicaprio, Django Unchained
Alternates:
Samuel L. Jackson, Django Unchained
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Javier Bardem, Skyfall
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Sally Field, Lincoln
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy
Judi Dench, Skyfall
Alternates:
Maggie Smith, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Amy Adams, The Master
Jennifer Ehle, Zero Dark Thirty
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Zero Dark Thirty
Django Unchained
Amour
Alternates:
Looper
Flight
The Intouchables
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Alternates:
Life of Pi
Les Miserables
The Sessions
FILM EDITING
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Life of Pi
Alternates:
Les Miserables
Skyfall
The Dark Knight Rises
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty
Life of Pi
Django Unchained
Alternates:
Lincoln
Les Miserables
The Dark Knight Rises
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Anna Karenina
Les Miserables
Lincoln
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Alternates:
Django Unchained
A Royal Affair
Cloud Atlas
COSTUME DESIGN
Anna Karenina
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Django Unchained
A Royal Affair
Alternates:
Mirror Mirror
SOUND MIXING
Les Miserables
The Dark Knight Rises
Zero Dark Thirty
Django Unchained
Skyfall
Alternates:
The Avengers
Lincoln
SOUND EDITING
Les Miserables
The Dark Knight Rises
Zero Dark Thirty
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Alternates:
The Avengers
The Impossible
Skyfall
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Lincoln
Men in Black 3
Alternates:
Les Miserables
Snow White & The Huntsman
Looper
Hitchcock
VISUAL EFFECTS
Life of Pi
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Dark Knight Rises
The Avengers
Prometheus
Alternates:
Skyfall
Cloud Atlas
John Carter
Snow White & The Huntsman
The Amazing Spider-Man
ORIGINAL SCORE
Lincoln
Life of Pi
Anna Karenina
Zero Dark Thirty
Alternates:
The Dark Knight Rises
Cloud Atlas
ORIGINAL SONG
Les Miserables (“Suddenly”)
Skyfall (“Skyfall”)
Lawless (“Cosmonaut”)
Django Unchained (“Ancora Qui”)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (“Song of the Lonely Mountain”)
Alternates:
Django Unchained (“Freedom”)
Django Unchained (“100 Black Coffins”)
Joyful Noise (“He’s Everything”)
ANIMATED FEATURE
Brave
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman
Wreck-It Ralph
Alternates:
From Up On Poppy Hill
The Rabbi’s Cat
Rise of the Guardians
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Zarafa
The Lorax
Hotel Transylvania
The Painting
Secret of the Wings
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Walter & Tandoori’s Christmas
The Mystical Laws
Adventures in Zambezia
Hey Krishna
Delhi Safari
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Bully
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man
Alternates:
5 Broken Cameras
Chasing Ice
Detropia
Ethel
The House I Live In
The Imposter
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
This Is Not A Film
The Waiting Room
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Amour (Austria)
The Intouchables (France)
Kon-Tiki (Norway)
The Deep (Iceland)
War Witch (Canada)
Alternates:
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
No (Chile)
Sister (Switzerland)
Beyond the Hills (Romania)
FILMS WITH THE MOST OVERALL NOMINATIONS
Lincoln = 11
Zero Dark Thirty = 9
Django Unchained = 8
Les Miserables = 7
Silver Linings Playbook = 7
Argo = 6
Life of Pi = 6
Amour = 5
The Master = 5
Skyfall = 4
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey = 4
The Dark Knight Rises = 3
Anna Karenina = 3
The Sessions = 2
Moonrise Kingdom = 2
Beasts of the Southern Wild = 2
Staff writer Franklin P. Laviola wrote and directed the award-winning short film Happy Face, which has screened at over 20 film festivals. For more film coverage, see his Top 10 Films of 2012.