When Academy award nominations for 2013 were announced earlier this week, I was pleased to see that I had already seen all the films selected for Best Picture. There is a sense of accomplishment (and relief) knowing whichever film is selected as Best Picture, you’ve already seen and have an opinion about it. Some years I’m left scrambling trying to catch an unseen nominee (and last year I wasn’t able to watch Amour until months after the awards were handed out). This year has a solid crop of nominees, I was pleased to see there were no head-scratchers (I’m looking at you Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). In fact, two of the films, Philomena and Dallas Buyers Club, were pleasant surprises and I hope they can use their nominations to help get a late boost to their box office totals. Thanks to some assistance from http://www.flickchart.com, here’s how I had them ranked (rank for the year in parenthesis):

(2) The Wolf of Wall Street (A+)
(4) Her (A+)
(11) 12 Years a Slave (A)
(12) Philomena (A)
(14) American Hustle (A-)
(15) Gravity (A-)
(18) Dallas Buyers Club (B+)
(26) Captain Phillips (B+)
(36) Nebraska (B)

Despite my adoration for Scorsese’s masterful black comedy, Wolf of Wall Street, it’s become fairly obvious that realistically the Best Picture Oscar race has come down to 12 Years A Slave and American Hustle. I enjoyed American Hustle and the plethora of impressive performances, but I fear that if it does come away with the top award, a pretty darn good film will suffer undeserved backlash from the proverbial peanut gallery. If the Academy wants to honor the film that has the best chance at standing the test of time, they need to, despite the difficult subject matter, choose 12 Years A Slave, and at the end of the day I think they will. Although, I can still hold out hope for a Wolf of Wall Street upset…
Which film do you think will take home the top prize?