Academy Awards Preview

The 85th Academy Awards will soon be upon us! On February 24th, the biggest stars in Hollywood will be acknowledged for their excellence. As always, most of the focus will be on the best picture nominees which include: Amour, Django Unchained, Argo, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Silver Lining's Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, and Beasts of the Southern Wild.

The two leaders for Best Picture this year seem to be Argo, and Zero Dark Thirty. In the early stages of awards from film festivals, it looked as if Zero Dark Thirty would run away with the win. Despite this early start, once the movie hit the big screens, audiences weren't as blown away with it as critics were.  Leading up the Academy Awards, Argo has been the winner of some major film awards, including Best Picture at the Golden Globes.

Despite these two film being the front-runners, I have a feeling that we may see an upset this year. Silver Lining's Playbook received early critical acclaim, and has continued to do well at the box office. Along with the fact that it has very funny moments and is an overall feel-good movie, I believe that it has a chance to upset the two, more serious and less grossing films at the top.

Also on the list, we have some other interesting, high grossing movies, that could have a chance at top stop depending on what the Academy is looking for this year. Django Unchained, did very well at the box office, grossing 154m in the U.S. so far. This movie would be the favorite if the Academy was made up of men under the age of 25. Les Miserables was released along side Django, and also did well at the box office grossing 144m. With some hesitation from critics and audiences alike, look for this to get a pass for best picture, but could take home some acting awards. The Pultzer prize winning novel, Life of Pi, was thought to be impossible to adapt to the big screen. For this reason alone, Life of Pi has a chance at winning best picture. Rounding out the blockbuster hopefuls, is Steven Spielberg's Lincoln.  With Spielberg at the helm of this one, it was almost a shoe-in for a best picture nomination. Grossing over 170m in the U.S alone, Lincoln has a strong case to be at the top of the list.

Rounding out the 9 nominees are Beast of the Southern Wind, and Amour. These two will be the the definite underdogs, having no big names attached to them, and no public support. To me, the only awards that these will be winning will be those in the acting categories.

Until the night of the awards, I will take an in-depth look at each of the nominees and finally, make my final predictions before the big night. Next post I will look at one of the favorites, Argo.