I love an occasion, a good show and celebrating film, so I’ll be glued to the television from 2.30pm this Monday (3^rd March) for the 86^th Academy Awards. Months of speculation will finally come to an end as we see ifGravity or 12 Years a Slave will triumph as Best Film and if the cast of American Hustle have conned their way to Oscar glory in the acting categories.  

I love an occasion, a good show and celebrating film, so I’ll be glued to the television from 2.30pm this Monday (3^rd March) for the 86^th Academy Awards. Months of speculation will finally come to an end as we see if Gravity or 12 Years a Slave will triumph as Best Film and if the cast of American Hustle have conned their way to Oscar glory in the acting categories.  

Picking a winner at the Oscar’s is as close to gambling as I get, and it’s dawned on me that in many of the categories there are only two real contenders for the golden statue. In many cases either could win, but if I had to place a bet, this is who I think will take home the Oscar for the main eight awards.

BEST PICTURE:

Should win: 12 Years a Slave
Could scoop the prize: Gravity

BEST DIRECTOR: 

Should win: Alfonso Cuaron - Gravity
Could scoop the prize: Steve McQueen - 12 Years a Slave

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:

Should win: Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club
Could scoop the prize: Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave or Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:

Should win: Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
There’s nothing else to discuss here.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Should win: Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club
Could scoop the prize: Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips or Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Should win: Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave
Could scoop the prize: Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Should win: John Ridley - 12 Years a Slave
Could scoop the prize: Billy Ray - Captain Phillips or Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope - Philomena

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Should win: Spike Jonze - Her
Could scoop the prize: Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell - American Hustle, but I’d prefer the upset to go to Bob Nelson for Nebraska.

Will there be any major upsets? I sure hope so, but apart from some stories about the inaccurate physics in Gravity, legal issues with Captain Philip’s real life crew and questions about the historical accuracy of 12 Years a Slave, it’s been a pretty steady race for the critically acclaimed frontrunners. A surprise would have to be the result of some serious underground politicking.

 Lets hope then that host Ellen de Generes will provide some unexpected moments. This year the Oscar’s have a theme, ‘Movie Heroes’, and they’ll pay tribute to big-screen real-life heroes, super heroes, popular heroes and animated heroes. Hopefully this gives de Generes plenty of good material to work with.

As usual, a collection of past Oscar winners and nominees will be presenting awards, including Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Jennifer Lawrence, Bill Murray and Brad Pitt.

And it wouldn’t be the Oscars without a couple of musical acts, this year U2 will perform their Oscar nominated song Ordinary Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Pharrell Williams will sing his Oscar nominated hit Happy from Despicable Me 2.

All that’s left to do now, is hope that the best film wins!