CNN list of 2013 movie Oscar nominations in 2014 and our picks

Oscar picks for the 2014 (2013 movies) Oscars

Kal Kat chooses from the list called CNN Oscar ballot: Make your choices, share your picks

Best picture
"12 Years a Slave"
"The Wolf of Wall Street"
"Captain Phillips"
"Her"
"American Hustle"
"Gravity"
"Dallas Buyers Club"
"Nebraska"
"Philomena"

I think Captain Phillips will win, but 12 Years a Slave could, if it weren't political, and since Phillips isn't currently political it might win. I would be surprised if Gravity won and would choose that one when I suspect Oscar will not.

Best director
Steve McQueen -- "12 Years a Slave"
David O. Russell -- "American Hustle"
Alfonso Cuaron -- "Gravity"
Alexander Payne -- "Nebraska"
Martin Scorsese -- "The Wolf of Wall Street"

If Gravity wins, Caron will win, but they aren't likely to go there. They will pick 12 years a slave just because they did not pick Phillips at all. They've been not picking the same movie as director lately.

Best actor
Bruce Dern -- "Nebraska"
Chiwetel Ejiofor -- "12 Years a Slave"
Matthew McConaughey -- "Dallas Buyers Club"
Leonardo DiCaprio -- "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Christian Bale -- "American Hustle"

They will likely snub 12 years a slave for picture, but to woo the audience and prove they're not out to lunch, they will give it to the dude for 12 years a slave. They can then say, look, we gave it to another person that isn't white. We're not all white old men. 

The reason why Leo won't win, he's Leo and this is again an attempt for him to win. 

Christian is just not that deep an actor, but he is committed to a role. His performance was more of an ad lib session during Hustle. They all did that.

Why Nebraska and Dallas were even mentioned is beyond us.

Best actress
Amy Adams -- "American Hustle"
Cate Blanchett -- "Blue Jasmine"
Judi Dench -- "Philomena"
Sandra Bullock -- "Gravity"
Meryl Streep -- "August: Osage County"

Sandra just can't win again over Meryl. It shall not be,. She deserves the Oscar over any of these others, except maybe Judy Densh.  Will Oscar just try to be hip and give it to Amy Adams? That would be silly. She also ad libbed her lines in the movie, given that was the idea, and she wasn't posting acting range. Same for Sandra in space. Gravity was a cool to look a movie, but it was hardly an acting marvel.

Really the only reason August and Philomena are even mentioned (late in the voting movies once again) is because those two grand ladies of acting were in them, and deserve something. The movies were not wide release until Christmas weekend really. 

Jasmine is too controversial to get a nod. 

Best supporting actor
Barkhad Abdi -- "Captain Phillips"
Bradley Cooper -- "American Hustle"
Jonah Hill -- "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Jared Leto -- "Dallas Buyers Club"
Michael Fassbender -- "12 Years a Slave"

They aren't going to give the supporting actor to 12 years if they give it to the actor category.  They thus will not give it to the guy from Phillips for the same reason. If they don't give it to the actor category, they might give it to the guy from Phillips to appear more political. 

However, they love popular guys, so the snubbed otherwise American Hustle guy will get it. He doesn't really deserve it, but it will get it.

Johah Hill is not going to win.

Best supporting actress
Jennifer Lawrence -- "American Hustle"
Lupita Nyong'o -- "12 Years a Slave"
June Squibb -- "Nebraska"
Julia Roberts -- "August: Osage County"
Sally Hawkins -- "Blue Jasmine"

Even though Julia Roberts wins, or she did sometimes, the new sweetheart of Jennifer Lawrence, who shall take the crown this time around. Yes once Julia would be a shoe in, but not anymore. It’s not that her ad libbing was any better in Hustle, but rather that she is better known than the others, second to Roberts.  

Best original screenplay
"American Hustle" -- David O. Russell and Eric Warren Singer
"Blue Jasmine" -- Woody Allen
"Her" -- Spike Jonze
"Nebraska" -- Bob Nelson
"Dallas Buyers Club" -- Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack

Spike is going to walk away with this one. It’s a quirky story trying to be deep and it will trick the Oscar fogies into going for it.

Best adapted screenplay
"12 Years a Slave" -- John Ridley
"Before Midnight" -- Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
"The Wolf of Wall Street" -- Terence Winter
"Captain Phillips" -- Billy Ray
"Philomena" -- Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope

This one goes to 12 years a slave over Phillips, especially if Phillips doesn’t get anything else.

Best animated feature
"The Wind Rises"
"Frozen"
"Despicable Me 2"
"Ernest & Celestine"
"The Croods"

Really all of these other choices, and no Epic, are just sad, so Frozen wins.

Best music (original song)
"Frozen": "Let it Go" -- Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez
"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom": "Ordinary Love" -- U2, Paul Hewson
"Her": "The Moon Song" -- Karen O, Spike Jonze
"Despicable Me 2": "Happy" -- Pharrell Williams
"Alone Yet Not Alone": "Alone Yet Not Alone" -- Bruce Broughton, Dennis Spiegel

Come on, it’s a Disney movie. It has to win. They have a rule. It helps that for several years they owned the presenting theater and the judges because of a terrible Oscar show in the late 1980s they will never live down, leading to 7 years of Disney winning (1989-1996). Let it happen again.

Best music (original score)
"Gravity" -- Steven Price
"Philomena" -- Alexandre Desplat
"The Book Thief" -- John Williams
"Saving Mr. Banks" -- Thomas Newman
"Her" -- William Butler and Owen Pallett

Well the music in Banks is fun, but unless it’s another nod to Disney songs, it will not pass. They will go with Gravity, which has been snubbed so far, but we liked it.

Best costume design
"The Great Gatsby" -- Catherine Martin
"12 Years a Slave" -- Patricia Norris
"The Grandmaster" -- William Chang Suk Ping
"American Hustle" -- Michael Wilkinson
"The Invisible Woman" -- Michael O'Connor

The costumes were about the only thing going for Gatsby, which shouldn’t be on the list. But they might go with Hustle to stop this, although really the costumes weren’t all that smashing.

Best film editing
"Gravity" -- Alfonso Cuaron, Mark Sanger
"12 Years a Slave"-- Joe Walker
"Captain Phillips" -- Christopher Rouse
"American Hustle" -- Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
"Dallas Buyers Club" -- John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa

Gravity is basically science fiction and they’re not going to let it have editing, but if by some miracle it does, best picture may happen. They would then show us up. But really it should be Captain Phillips with the jarring camera. It really makes you nauseous. I don’t get motion sick so what it did was go to my head and make me have a headache. Still it was something they will go for over the space movie with them funny newfangled space effects.

Best makeup and hairstyling
"The Lone Ranger" -- Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny
"Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" -- Stephen Prouty
"Dallas Buyers Club" -- Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews

The Lone Ranger was a POS. What is it doing on the list? Jackass winning an award would be hilarious. Yes!

Best production design
"12 Years a Slave" -- Adam Stockhausen and Alice Baker
"The Great Gatsby" -- Catherine Martin and Beverley Dunn
"American Hustle" -- Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler
"Gravity" -- Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
"Her" -- K.K. Barrett and Gene Serdena

This is a tough call because even Gatsby with its flaws had good production design. Hustle not so much. Going to go with Gravity. Her looked too much like today.

Best visual effects
"Gravity"
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"
"Star Trek Into Darkness"
"Iron Man 3"
"The Lone Ranger"

The Lone frakking Ranger was a travesty to the Lone Ranger mythos. No. Hobbit 2 will nail this. Sure Trek 12 is also equally kinetic, and that’s what you want.  Hobbit movies are just breathless. They have no equal except themselves.

Best sound mixing
"Gravity"
"Captain Phillips"
"Lone Survivor"
"Inside Llewyn Davis"
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"

Lone Survivor is controversial, so no. Captain Phillips will win here. Hobbit should but it won’t get both. I could be pleasantly surprised though.

Best sound editing
"Gravity"
"All Is Lost"
"Captain Phillips"
"Lone Survivor"
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"

Here is a category where Gravity might win, but Smaug would also be nice.

List is taken from the CNN.com Oscar list web site.

Asides and comments from Kal Kat