2013 Oscar Nominations: Best Actor Nomination Predictions!

This is the year's most packed category. Maybe this could be like the Emmys, where there were seven Best Actress nominees.

1. Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Geez this guy is great. He's great in the movie, he has Mud on his resume, ran away with the first ten minutes of The Wolf of Wall Street, and also is incredible in the first episode of True Detective. God he's on a hot streak. And the best way to reward Matthew McConaughey is with an Oscar. Nomination, at least.

2. Chiwetel Ejiofer, 12 Years a Slave
What a triumphant performance. Really. This movie is great, and Ejiofer owns it.

3. Bruce Dern, Nebraska 
Yo. The movie's good, and Dern was probably the best part of it. It's funny on paper, and right below it is withering humanity and regret. And Dern, a well-liked Academy member, might get his nomination almost like a lifetime achievement sort of deal.

4. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Quality film, and DiCaprio being an actor that tends to overact, totally owns this role that is so unhinged and so damn crazy. Also winning the Golden Globe doesn't hurt.

5. Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
He's Tom Hanks. Two-time Oscar winner in two years. Also the movie's based off a true story, that doesn't hurt.

Also don't forget about Robert Redford (All is Lost) and Christian Bale (American Hustle), two performances that would easily slide in if it was less crowded.

LA Film Critics award winners reward Gravity AND Her!

Great announcements! Gravity got its biggest traction to date, and it may look like that we all have been underestimating what people thought of when it came to Her. This is an odd critics award session, because rewards were all over the place for so many films. I honestly have no idea where this award season is going.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

Her, runner-up Inside Llewyn Davis

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave, runner-up June Squibb, Nebraska

BEST EDITING:

Gravity, runner-up Upstream Color

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Gravity, runner-up Inside Llewyn Davis

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Tie! James Franco, Spring Breakers (YES!), Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

BEST ANIMATION:

Ernest and Celestine, runner-up The Wind Rises

BEST MUSIC:

Inside Llewyn Davis, runner-up Her

BEST DOCUMENTARY:
Stories We Tell, runner-up The Act of Killing

BEST DIRECTOR:
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity, runner-up Spike Jonze, Her

BEST ACTOR:
Bruce Dern, Nebraska, runner-up Chiwetel Ejiofer, 12 Years a Slave

BEST SCREENPLAY:
Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight (YES!!!), runner-up Spike Jonze, Her


BEST ACTRESS:
Tie!! Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine, Adele Exarchopolous, Blue is the Warmest Color

BEST PICTURE:
TIE!!! Gravity AND Her!


BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM:
Blue is the Warmest Color, runner-up The Great Beauty (YAY!)

NEW GENERATION PRIZE:
Megan Ellison (Annapurna Pictures)

LEGACY OF CINEMA:
The Criterion Collection

SPECIAL CITATION:
Creative team of 12 Years a Slave

Nebraska (2013)- Movie Review by Sean Wu

The midwest is a place I know well, for I am an Iowan. Nebraska is a film with a cast of Nebraskan small town folk, stereotyped in a greedy way. Is it offensive at all? Not really, because it is also very hilarious.

As a whole, Nebraska is one of the funniest films of 2013. Debut screenwriter Bob Nelson uses hilarious situations to his advantage, having his characters say the darndest things and having incredible stupidity, similar to what the Coens did to Minnesotans in Fargo. The best performer of  Nelson's dialogue is June Squibb, a character actress that lit up the screen at age 84, and elicited a laughter in almost every scene she was in. She's certainly worthy of an Oscar nomination.

First poster and trailer for Alexander Payne's Nebraska.

I have to admit, I am really digging the advertising for Payne's latest. I do love me some nostalgia.