Oscar Nomination Predictions

AMPAS announces its nominees first thing tomorrow morning. Accordingly, here are my nominee predictions, about which I feel far less confidant than I have about pretty much any year since I started paying attention to this stuff. With the exception of Daniel Day-Lewis in the Best Actor category and, to a lesser extent, Anne Hathaway in the Best Supporting Actress category, there don't appear to be any really solid front runners in any of the categories, which makes this a particularly unpredictable - and very exciting - year.

My predictions:

Best Picture
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Les Miserables
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

alt: Moonrise Kingdom

Best Director
Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Tom Hooper, Les Miserables
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

alt: Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thrity
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvanzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

alt: Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone

Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

alt: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Maggie Smith, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

alt: Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Les Miserables
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

alt: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Original Screenplay
Amour
Django Unchained
The Master
Moonrise Kingdom
Zero Dark Thirty

alt: Looper

Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Lincoln
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Silver Linings Playbook

alt: Life of Pi

Best Film Editing
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Les Miserables
Zero Dark Thirty

alt: Flight

Best Cinematography
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Master
Skyfall

alt: Argo

Best Production Design
Anna Karenina
Argo
Cloud Atlas
Lincoln
Les Miserables

alt: The Master

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina
Django Unchained
Mirror Mirror
Les Miserables
Snow White and the Huntsman

alt: A Royal Affair

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Lincoln
Les Miserables

alt: Men in Black 3

Best Visual Effects
The Avengers
Cloud Atlas
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life of Pi
Prometheus

alt: Snow White and the Huntsman

Best Sound Editing
The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Skyfall

alt: Prometheus

Best Sound Mixing
The Avengers
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Prometheus
Skyfall

alt: The Dark Knight Rises

Best Original Score
Anna Karenina
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Cloud Atlas
Lincoln

alt: Life of Pi

Best Original Song
“Learn Me Right,” Brave
“Ancora Qui,” Django Unchained
“Pi’s Lullaby,” Life of Pi
“Suddenly,” Les Miserables
“Skyfall,” Skyfall

alt: “Freedom,” Django Unchained

Best Animated Feature
Brave
Frankenweenie
The Painting
ParanNorman
Wreck-It-Ralph

alt: Rise of the Guardians

Best Documentary Feature
Bully
The Gatekeepers
The Imposter
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
Searching for Sugar Man

alt: This is Not a Film

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour (Austria)
The Intouchables (France)
No (Chile)
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
War Witch (Canada)

alt: Kon-Tiki (Norway)