Oscar 2013 Best Picture Nominees

Oscar has decided to come up with only nine films to compete for Best Picture trophy this year. While most award-giving bodies have unveiled their best movie of the year, The Oscars has yet to name their's come February 24th.

Let's take a look at the nine films that made it to the standard of the Academy Awards and the odds of taking home the gold as we compare these films to nominated films for past years.

1. Amour  - A French-language drama from Austria. The only non-English speaking film nominated, in fact the first since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon nominated last 2000. Like 'Crouching Tiger', Amour also nominated for 'Best Foreign Film' which is also expected to win in the said category. What makes the film a strong contender is that it's nominated for three other major awards; Best Actress for Emmauelle Riva, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director for Michael Haneke. Only four other films among the list received that type of nominations and for past ten years Best Picture winners emerge from list of films with acting, directing and writing nods.

2. Argo - a rescue movie from director Ben Affleck. Expectations for this thriller to win this year's Best Picture is very high as it won almost all the best picture awards there is. The only disadvantage of the film from winning is Affleck missing on Directing category and the last film recognized by the Academy without directing nod is Driving Miss Daisy and that was 1990. The film also scored a writing nod, a supporting role for Alan Arkin and a couple of technical awards. While these don't necessarily add up, still Argo is a winning piece from Affleck and with best picture trophies it collected, winning The Oscar is not really surprising.

3. Beast of Southern Wild - Grand Jury winner of Sundance Film Festival reaching its ultimate success as a finalist for this year's Oscar Best Film. While Winter's Bone reached the same point last 2011 it failed to win the gold. But with acting nod from amazing young Quvenzhane Wallis, an adapted screenplay and a directing nomination 'Beast' might be the first festival winner to win the Oscar's grand prize. 

4. Django Unchained. This is Quentin Tarantino's third entry as Best Picture finalist following Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds both written by him. With the same gory-style and filled with humor and wit,  Django Unchained might be his first best picture movie. Like Argo, the film is also missing in Directing category, but garnered nods for screenplay and acting award for Christoph Waltz.







5. Les Miserables - Exact ten years ago musical film Chicago won Best Picture and before that Oliver! in 1969. Moulin Rouge tried last 2001 but musical is really not an Oscar movie, at least after 1960s. Surely Tom Hooper's last film The King's Speech won but Oscar is not ready yet to give him another statuette this year. Acting award for Anne Hathaway is a sure bet and it might get some technical awards too but that's should be it.

6. Life of Pi - The only nominated 3D film this year and fourth since Avatar in 2010. This is Ang Lee's fourth Best Picture nominated movie following Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain. This child-friendly movie 'Pi' is like Hugo of last year that ended up with technical awards but it might pull up some surprises too. Chances are really slim that even Avatar didn't triumph a few years ago, but who knows Oscars might favor Lee and go for a 3D film this year.

7. Lincoln - Biopic movie is really an Oscar-prone movie, The King's Speech and A Beautiful Mind are enough proof. The film's boxoffice success helped a lot pushing this Spielberg's latest movie to a strong contender for this year's Oscars. It just has to climb a bit higher enough to knock down Argo though from the looks of it Lincoln is more of a showcase of Daniel-Day Lewis' talent. The movie leads this year with 12 nods including Directing job for Steven Spielberg (and will probably win), Screenplay and a couple for technical categories.




8. Silver Lining Playbook - Rom-com movie shows up rarely in the Oscars as among the best film finalists. Juno in 2008 and As Good as it Gets in 1998 both nominated for most major awards and 'Playbook' is most likely to end up with the same fate. The film seems to be locked in for acting award for its main star Jennifer Lawrence and maybe for director David O. Russell but that's gotta be it.








9. Zero Dark Thirty -the success of The Hurt Locker three years ago made this film a strong contender for this year best film, no to mention that the same people, director and writer made it. Kathryn Bigelow's absence from directing category hurts the movie a lot, and was overtaken by Lincoln and Argo in Best Picture race. The film's theme however is really important for most Americans and Oscars might consider it.




My top 3 movies to win this year's Best Picture are: Argo, Lincoln then Zero Dark Thirty

My Picks for 2011 Oscar Academy Awards

The Academy is probably busy as of this very moment preparing for tomorrow's biggest and prestigious event in Hollywood, the 83rd Academy Oscar Awards. But before they unveil the winners that would shape the movie history for years to come, allow me to declare my own list of Oscar winners.

Best Animated Film is "Toy Story 3". With the absence of "Tangled" and "Despicable Me" in nomination list, it shouldn't be hard for the animators of Academy to be unanimous on this category, not even the threat of "How To Train Your Dragon" winning the Best Animated film as awarded by Annie Award, the prestigious award for animated feature films.

Best Original Song is "Coming Home" by Gweneth Paltrow, the original song from the movie "Country Song". The song got sweet melody and Gweneth's voice is really soothing to listen to. I personally like all the nominated songs but of course I have to pick one. I always thought that"I See the Light" of the animated movie "Tangled" as the best song, but that was before I downloaded "Coming Home".

Best Original Score, is "Inception". "127 Hours" and "The Social Network" got a pretty good scoring but "Inception" will take home the Oscar, all technical awards actually, so add the Best Sound, Best Sound Editing, and Best in Visual Effects. After being snubbed in Director category, Oscar would do anything to make it up with Nolan, because he really deserves it...and by the way add the Best Art Direction to it too.

Best in Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay is "The Social Network". There is no question in these two categories, it's clear that the Facebook story will take home these two awards.

Best in Original Screenplay would again be "Inception". Simply because it's the most unique and original story among other nominees.

Best Supporting Actress is Melissa Leo in "The Fighter". I almost didn't recognize her in this film, I knew she was in it but hardly notice her because they were other female casts in the film. But I did notice how great the actress was who played Mark Whalberg and Christian Bale mother, then I realized I was referring to the same person, Melissa Leo. She was just great, no other words, that's it.

Best Supporting Actor is Christian Bale in "The Fighter", who else could it be?. If Geoffrey Rush would win it only means bad luck for "The King's Speech".

Best Actress is Natalie Portman in "Black Swan". Well it wouldn't be easy for me 'coz I always think (up to this very moment I still hope for her to win) Annette Benning to win this year 'coz I really felt bad when she didn't in "American Beauty" last 1999. But it's unbelievable for Natalie not to win, 2010 is for her and 1999 is the year that was for Benning.

Best Actor is Colin Firth of "The King's Speech". I'm not really a fan of this British actor but I've seen a lot of his films in the past and his performance as a stutterer king deserves him to win the Oscar finally after being upset last year by Sean Penn.

Best Director is David Fincher. He did a great adaptation of Facebook story which become so phenomenal. It almost won all the critics awards, not just in US but in UK as well. I really like Tom Hooper (especially his previous film "The Damned United" is one of my favorite films) but David is more deserving. He still has so many things to prove.

Best Picture is "The King's Speech". The battle between American history and British history in Oscar will be over soon, and it would end with a very good speech from the 'King' . "The Social Network" developed the confidence after sweeping almost all the critics awards but the "King" proved its dominance in BAFTA and Guild Awards. It was a very tough competition indeed.

These are just my own prediction, whether they win or not I would still stand for it. I really spent time watching all of these nominated films so I would be able to come up with my fair conclusion. Click here for the list of nominees.