1. Zero Dark Thirty
2. Elena
3. The Master
4. Silver Linings Playbook
5. Cosmopolis
6. Lincoln
7. The Deep Blue Sea and Take This Waltz
8. Killer Joe and Holy Motors
9. Bachelorette and Pitch Perfect
10. Wuthering Heights and Beasts of the Southern Wild

Oscar’s Nominees:

Joan Allen ... The Crucible

Fine nominee who was gifted with a great role that was slightly underplayed. The Crucible had many facets that were overlooked—such as the impeccable production and costume design, as well as the the volcanic lead performances of Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder—so that Allen’s supportive wife was the element singled out is a tad baffling. Even more baffling is how Allen would fail to get Academy recognition for her far superior work in The Ice Storm (1997), Pleasantville (1998), The Upside of Anger (2005) in relatively less-competitive years than 1996.

I’m sure every talented artisan in the technical categories was relieved when Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby was pushed back to Summer 2013, because if the glorious new trailer is anything to go by, it will score in every single technical category. Since, these categories have opened up, we have a very interesting year. Even though the Oscar nominations haven’t been announced yet, here are our Technical Category predictions.

Django Unchained is fantastic. There is simply no denying that but while some of Quentin Tarantino’s movies sometimes take their time to win their audience, this one truly begins with a bang as we meet Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). The German doctor travels all by himself in the middle of the night, his horse Fritz bows ceremoniously as his owner introduces himself to a group of slave drivers and their slaves. Within the next three minutes Schultz meets Django (Jamie Foxx) and the film’s plot is set in motion. It never lets you go after that.

The time has come to put forth my final predictions for Best Picture, and never has a task been more daunting. With so many films making late surges (Skyfall on the Producers Guild List? Salmon Fishing in the Yemen with three Golden Globe nods?) and the Academy rules allowing for up to 10 nominees, there are more movies with a legitimate shot at a nomination than ever before.

I’d like to put The Impossible in the mix having seen and adored it recently, but a respected colleague pointed out there isn’t much buzz out there for it. The Sessions seems to have similarly dropped off voters’ radar. It hasn’t won enough precursor awards to be seen as a legitimate contender. And we all know what happened to The Hobbit.

So who’s got the best odds? Who will hear their name called on January 10? And who will wake up to an alarm instead of a congratulatory phone call? Let’s dig in.