By Marlow Stern and Kevin Fallon, The Daily Beast, January 15, 2014
Will Joaquin Phoenix make it? What about the Coen brothers? The Daily Beast’s resident Oscarologists debate who will—and who should—be nominated for the Oscars.
Predicting the Academy Awards nominations can be a fool’s task sometimes. Remember when Ben Affleck wasn’t nominated for directing Argo, a film that went on to win Best Picture? Or when everyone expected Kate Winslet to win Best Actress for Revolutionary Road, but she was nominated for The Reader instead? Or when The Blind Side—seriously—was nominated for Best Picture?
Nonetheless, it was a fantastic year in film, with David O. Russell dressing up all your favorite actors in delightfully garish ‘70s garb in American Hustle, Martin Scorsese getting in touch with his debaucherous wild side at age 71 with The Wolf of Wall Street, Steve McQueen offering up the most haunting film portrait yet of our country’s brutal slave history with 12 Years a Slave, and the likes of Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, and even Oprah Winfrey delivering bonafide Movie Star performances.
Which will contend for Oscars when the nominations are announced Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST? Marlow Stern and Kevin Fallon serve up their best guesses of who will be nominated…and a little bit about who should.