Oscar Predictions 2013: Lincoln, Argo, and the Early Picks for Best Picture Nomination

Culture

The Oscars aren’t for another couple of months, but with the year nearing an end critics and bloggers are starting to make their predictions. So now would be a good time to brush up on this year’s favorites if you want to know what everyone’s talking about. Here are the top five most Oscar buzzed about movies 

1. Argo

Sparknotes: In case you haven’t heard, former rom-com golden boy Ben Affleck is a BFD director now. And everyone loves Argo, his CIA drama/thriller/spies-and-explosions movie about the Iran hostage crisis.

The Buzz: Half of IMDB’s experts are backing Argo for a Best Picture nomination. But some critics have expressed concern over the film’s timing, with U.S./Iran relations ... not at their best.

 

2. Life of Pi

Sparknotes: Based on a really, really great book by Yann Martel, Life of Pi is about a boy who spends a really, really long time lost at sea, trapped in a boat with a man-eating tiger. 

The Buzz: “Ang Lee's film mixes high adventure with some thought-provoking questions about faith and wraps it up with some incredible technical whiz-bang,” said Huffington Post’s Christopher Rosen. “Life of Pi could easily cruise to double-digit nominations.”

 

3. The Master

Sparknotes: A cinematically beautiful, high-budget, '50s era Scientology origin story starring Jaoquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

The Buzz: Everyone and their mother was raving about this film when it came out, so it will likely get a nomination, but, getting into the conspiracy theory spirit, Max Ervy on film.com speculated that dark forces could be at work behind the scenes. “An inside-Hollywood Scientology backlash could be the only thing standing in the way of this film going all the way,” he said. 

 

4. Lincoln

Sparknotes: A biopic about the Great Emancipator, with Daniel Day Lewis humanizing the legend.

The Buzz: This one’s on pretty much everyone’s prediction list. As Julian Sancton of movieline.com put it, “A biopic of Abraham Lincoln directed by Steven Spielberg could be made with animated stick figures and it would still be a shoo-in.”

5. Les Miserables

Sparknotes: I’m gonna take a leap of faith and assume that nobody needs to be told what this movie is based on.

The Buzz: Critics are excited about the use of live action singing in the film, but worried that it will have precious little time to make an impact with its late release date.

What did I miss? Do you have any early-buzz Oscar picks to add to the list?