Oscar 2014 predictions

With Hollywood packing up the glitz, glamour and gongs after another successful Oscars ceremony, we’ve decided to look at what films will be making waves at next year’s Academy Awards.

There are big name actors, bigger name directors and a smattering of thesps playing what award voters love most in the world – royals and presidents.

[Related story: Oscars 2013: Full list of winners]
[Related story: Oscars 2013: Best speeches]

The Wolf Of Wall Street
Likeliest nomination: Best Director – Martin Scorsese
Scorsese returns to more familiar territory with, as you’d expect of a Marty picture, a top notch cast including Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role. Having been snubbed this year after a popular performance in ‘Django Unchained’, next year could be Leo’s moment, particularly with a supporting cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill and last year’s Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin. The film follows DiCaprio’s stockbroker Jordan Belfort after he refuses to cooperate in a large-scale fraud case involving corruption in Wall Street and the mob.


Diana
Likeliest nomination: Best Actress – Naomi Watts
A biopic that’s bound to ruffle a few feathers, Naomi Watts will star as the people’s princess in a film charting the two years prior to her untimely demise. As Colin Firth and Helen Mirren can attest to, the Academy loves a royal, so all the focus will be on Watts and a good performance could very well see her rewarded with a nomination.


Saving Mr Banks
Likeliest nomination: Best Actor – Tom Hanks
Oscar-voters love actors portraying historical figures almost as much as they love Tom Hanks. Here they get both, with Hanks playing Walt Disney in a film following writer P.L. Travers as the House of Mouse adapts her book ‘Mary Poppins’ for the big screen. Emma Thompson plays Travers and considering the pedigree and prior form of the two actors, it’s not hard to imagine both picking up nominations. 


Gravity
Likeliest nomination: Best Actor – George Clooney
‘Gravity’ is an ambitious sci-fi starring previous acting nominees and winners George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as two astronauts drifting through space, unable to return to Earth. Being the only two in the film, both actors will have to turn in great performances for it even to work. With ‘Children Of Men’s acclaimed director Alfonso Cuarón behind the camera also, there’s understandably a lot of hype around the film.


The Great Gatsby
Likeliest nomination: Best Costume Design
Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Moulin Rouge’ picked up eight nominations in 2002, and ‘The Great Gatsby’ represents a return to his brash and stylish best. It’s also an adaptation of what many consider to be THE great American novel. For likely acting nominations you have to turn to Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular party-thrower and our own Carey Mulligan, who was seemingly born to play heartbreaker Daisy Buchanan.

Only God Forgives
Likeliest nomination: Best Supporting Actress – Kristen Scott Thomas
Another successful pairing from 2011 was that of Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling. ‘Drive’ quickly became a cult classic and now the pair are working together on another super-violent tale. The film is about a drug ring run by Julien (Gosling) and his mother Jenna (Kristin Scott Thomas) who orders him to find and kill the ones responsible for the recent murder of his brother. Hype has already started to build around Thomas’ performance, and we can’t wait to see if it’s justified.


Twelve Years A Slave
Likeliest nomination: Best Actor – Michael Fassbender
When Fassbender and director Steve McQueen last collaborated on ‘Shame’, Fassbender’s lack of nomination for what was universally praised as a powerhouse performance was one of the bigger snubs of recent years. They’re working together once more on ‘Twelve Years A Slave’, which concerns a man living in mid-1800’s New York who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American Deep South. As if the prospect of a follow-up to ‘Shame’ and ‘Hunger’ wasn’t good enough already, Brad Pitt also joins the pair.


Map To The Stars
Likeliest nomination: Best Actor – Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen has been a favourite of David Cronenberg’s for years now and was nominated under his guidance for 2007’s ‘Eastern Promises’. Following ‘Cosmopolis’ it seems that Robert Pattinson is a new muse for the Canadian director. Both actors will appear in his latest, ‘Map To The Stars’. Said to be a Hollywood satire,  film’s about the industry usually do quite well, just look at the last two Best Picture winners ‘Argo’ and ‘The Artist’.


The Butler
Likeliest nomination: Best Picture
An enormous cast and the director behind former Best Picture nominee ‘Precious’ would normally be reason enough for a film to be a contender during 2014’s awards season. However one name all but confirms that it will be – Harvey Weinstein. If the famous producer wants his film at the Oscars then you better believe he’ll pull all the strings available to him to make it happen. ‘The Butler’ tells the true story of a White House butler who served eight presidents across three decades. Forest Whitaker plays the butler, while John Cusack, Robin Williams and Alan Rickman are among those playing presidents. The impressive cast also includes Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Vanessa Redgrave and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Elysium
Likeliest nomination: Best Visual Effects
Its been a long time coming but this year will see the long-awaited directorial return of ‘District 9’s Neill Blomkamp. Bearing a few similarities to his previous work, ‘Elysium’ could well generate a similar award season buzz. After all, ‘District 9’ received nominations for writing, effects, script and for the Best Picture prize back in 2010. The first footage will give us a better idea of whether this will be the kind of film to trouble the big awards, but it is certainly a top candidate for the technical gongs.


August: Osage County
Likeliest nomination: Best Supporting Actress – Meryl Streep
Another Weinstein film, this is an adaptation of Tracy Letts’ successful play of the same name. It’s a black comedy about a family settling their differences when their alcoholic father goes missing. The cast is certainly impressive with Benedict Cumberbatch, Julia Roberts and Ewan McGregor all on board. Oh, and there’s a certain Meryl Streep involved too. She plays a cancer sufferer addicted to prescription medication, which let’s be honest has Oscar-nomination written all over it.


Inside Llewyn Davis
Likeliest nomination: Best Adapted Screenplay
Those Coen Brothers may be publicity-shy but that doesn’t stop the Academy from lavishing them with nominations. Their last three films all received Best Picture nods, with ‘No Country For Old Men’ taking home the prize in 2008. ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ is based on the memoir of Dave Van Ronk, and tells the story of a musician finding his way in 1960s New York. It stars Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake and Coen-favourite John Goodman.


Serena
Likeliest nomination: Best Actress – Jennifer Lawrence
Having taken home the 2013 Best Actress prize, all eyes will be on Jennifer Lawrence’s next Oscar-hunting performance. ‘Serena’ is a depression-era drama about a married couple played by Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, who will be hoping to capitalise on the chemistry that made ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ such a success.


Untitled David O’Russell Project
Likeliest nomination: Best Picture
David O’Russell is very aware of that chemistry too having directed the pair in the nomination-hoarding film. He’s so aware in fact that he too has cast Lawrence and Cooper in his next, so-far untitled film. O’Russell’s thriller will tell the story of Abscam, an FBI sting operation that resulted in the arrest of US congressmen. If Lawrence was to be under pressure ahead of her performance in ‘Serena’, then you can double that for this film.


Do you have any other picks for next year’s Oscars? Let us know below…