The Best Films of 2014 – the Half-Way Point

Looking at any annual film schedule, its evident that the first half of the year can never quite live up to the second and 2014 is no exception. This year really did get off to a rotten start with 47 Ronin, The Legend of Hercules and I Frankenstein dragging their heals at the box-office but this did pave a way for others; The Wolf of Wall Street and Ride Along both enjoyed three consecutive weeks at the top of the UK and US box-office respectively. Following that came some genuine surprises. Wes Anderson’s ensemble comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel reached 1st and 3rd in the UK and US against all odds and The Lego Movie, one of the most poorly marketed films in recent years, was an unexpected treat and certainly and future cult classic.

The biblical format seemed to increase in popularity around Easter with the low-key Christian dramas Heaven is For Real, Son of God and God’s Not Dead taking nearly thirty times their micro-budgets but these religious flicks aren’t proving successful outside of America, besides Aronofsky’s star-driven epic Noah. The “Katniss-effect” of The Hunger Games has evidently given studios the faith to put stronger female characters into the fray of action and adventure with Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent and Shailene Woodley’s Divergent winning out over Johnny Depp’s Transcendence or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Sabotage financially. Edge of Tomorrow even managed it to the extent of Tom Cruise needing saving from Emily Blunt’s ultimate warrior.

In the last six months, certain individuals are lighting up the box-office left, right and centre. Former comedian Kevin Hart has lead a trio of success, Ride Along, About Last Night and Think Like a Man Too, while the Jump Street quartet (director Phil Lord and Chris Miller/stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill) have a cinematic Midas-touch. It’s evident that Lego’s Chris Pratt can do no wrong and, with Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy coming soon, he’s well on his way to man-of-the-year status. The biggest winners of the year have to be Marvel. Even though their heroes are divided across Sony, Fox and Disney, Stan Lee’s creations of Spider-Man, Captain America (kind-of) and the X-Men are currently the three biggest films of the year so far and they’ll only continue to grow bigger.

Below you can find the international box-office top ten followed by our own personal picks of the year so far as well as the ten to look for in the rest of 2014:

International Box-office Top 10:

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Director: Anthony and Joe Russo – Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily Van Camp, Samuel L Jackson, Hayley Attwell, Toby Jones – Box-office: $710.8 million
2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Marc Webb – Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Jamie Foxx, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Chris Cooper – $703.3 million
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past – Bryan Singer – Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Josh Helman, Omar Sy, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till – $700 million
4. Maleficent – Robert Stromberg – Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manville – $531.8 million
5. Godzilla – Gareth Edwards – Aaron Taylor Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche – $478.7 million
6. Rio 2 – Carlos Saldanha – Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Leslie Mann, Bruno Mars, Jemaine Clement, Jamie Foxx, will.i.am – $469.4 million
7. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders – $467.2 million
8. Noah – Darren Aronofsky – Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth, Anthony Hopkins – $356.2 million
9. 300: Rise of an Empire – Noam Murro – Eva Green, Sullivan Stapleton, Lena Headey, Jack O’Connell, Rodrigo Santoro, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham – $331.1 million
10. Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman – Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong – $298.8 million

Tuorhoth’s Top 10:

1. X-Men: Days of Future Past – Bryan Singer – Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Josh Helman, Omar Sy, Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till
2. Godzilla – Gareth Edwards – Aaron Taylor Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche
3. The Lego Movie – Phil Lord, Chris Miller – Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Cobie Smulders
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Anthony and Joe Russo – Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily Van Camp, Samuel L Jackson, Hayley Attwell, Toby Jones
5. Edge of Tomorrow – Doug Liman – Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Jonas Armstrong
6. The Two Faces of January – Hossein Amini – Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac, Kirsten Dunst
7. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – Justin Chadwick – Idris Elba, Naomi Harris
8. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit – Kenneth Branagh – Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner, Nonso Anozie, Gemma Chan
9. RoboCop – Jose Padilha – Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, Abbie Cornish, Michael Keaton, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle, Jackie Earle Haley, Aimee Garcia, Michael K Williams, Samuel L Jackson
10. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Marc Webb – Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Dane DeHaan, Jamie Foxx, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, Chris Cooper

Top 10 Anticipated:

1. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – Matthew MacConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Topher Grace, Casey Affleck, David Oyelowo, John Lithgow, Matt Damon
2. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson – Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Aidan Turner, James Nesbitt, Ken Stott, Sylvester McCoy, Lee Pace, Manu Bennett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee
3. Gone Girl – David Fincher – Ben Affleck, Neil Patrick Harris, Rosamund Pike
4. Kingsman: The Secret Service – Matthew Vaughn – Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong
5. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, John C Reilly
6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – Jason Clarke, Andy Serkis, James Franco, Judy Greer, Gary Oldman, Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit McPhee
7. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Jena Malone, Sam Clafin, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Natalie Dormer, Philip Seymour, Hoffman
8. Fury – David Ayer – Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Jason Isaacs, Michael Pena, Shia LeBeouf
9. Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott – Christian Bale, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley
10. The Judge – David Dobkin – Robert Downey Jr, Robert Duvall, Billy Bob Thornton, Vera Farmiga

The 2014 Tuorhoth Awards Nominations

If you’ve been following some of our recent posts, you’ll have picked up that The 2014 Tuorhoth Awards are on their way and today we’re going to announce the nominees. The nominees have been selected by a group of four elite judges. Our aim is to provide a mix of mainstream and arthouse for a honest awards ceremony to celebrate the best in film. The winners will be announced next week.

Best Movie:

12 Years a Slave

Captain Phillips

Cloud Atlas

Gravity

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Kings of Summer

Much Ado About Nothing

Rush

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Thor: The Dark World

Best Leading Actress:

Carey Mulligan – The Great Gatsby

Amy Acker – Much Ado About Nothing

Rinko Kikuchi – Pacific Rim

Sandra Bullock – Gravity

Amy Adams – American Hustle

Best Leading Actor:

Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave

Idris Elba – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Martin Freeman – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips

Zachary Quinto – Star Trek Into Darkness

Best Director:

Justin Chadwick – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity

Ron Howard – Rush

Peter Jackson – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Baz Luhrmann – The Great Gatsby

Best Supporting Actor:

Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips

Moises Arias – The Kings of Summer

Daniel Bruhl – Rush

Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave

Tom Hiddleston – Thor: The Dark World

Best Supporting Actress:

Doona Bae – Cloud Atlas

Naomi Harris – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle

Evangeline Lilly – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave

Best Comedy:

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

The Kings of Summer

Much Ado About Nothing

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Wreck-It Ralph

Best Sci-Fi:

Cloud Atlas

Ender’s Game

Man of Steel

Pacific Rim

Star Trek Into Darkness

Best Fantasy:

47 Ronin

Cloud Atlas

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Thor: The Dark World

The Wolverine

Best Animated Film:

Despicable Me 2

Monsters University

Wreck-It Ralph

Best Drama:

12 Years a Slave

The Great Gatsby

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Rush

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Thriller:

Captain Phillips

Gravity

The Lone Ranger

Now You See Me

World War Z

Kermode Award for Best Newcomer:

Barkhad Abdi

Moises Arias

Doona Bae

Luke Evans

Lupita Nyong’o

Best Original Song:

Atlas – Coldplay – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Young and Beautiful – Lana Del Rey – The Great Gatsby

I See Fire – Ed Sheeran – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Ordinary Love – U2 – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Happy – Pharrel Williams – Despicable Me 2

Best Musical Score:

Oz: The Great and Powerful – Danny Elfman

Gravity – Steven Price

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Howard Shore

Cloud Atlas – Tom Tykwer

Man of Steel – Hans Zimmer

Best Special Effects:

Ender’s Game

Gravity

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Pacific Rim

Star Trek Into Darkness

Best Original Screenplay:

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa – Armando Ianucci, Steve Coogan

American Hustle – Eric Warren Singer, David O’Russell

Gravity – Jonas Cuaron, Alfonso Cuaron

The Kings of Summer – Chris Galletta

Wreck-It Ralph – Jennifer Lee

Best Adapted Screenplay:

12 Years a Slave – John Ridley

Captain Phillips – Billy Ray

Cloud Atlas – Lana Wachowksi, Andy Wachowski, Tom Tykwer

The Great Gatsby – Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Steve Conrad

Are We Crazy? Did we miss out a classic? Tell us your favourite movies from the last year in the comments and get unsung heroic in the soptlight!

47 Ronin review

Director: Carl Rinsch

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi, Ko Shibasaki, Min Tanaka, Takato Yonemoto, Jin Akanishi, Hiroshi Sogabe

47 Ronin has a ridiculously large budget, the reason for which we’ll address later, but that’s not the only reason it’s proved to be a huge box office flop. Chris Morgan’s (Fast and Furious) script pitches a fantasy based take on the Japanese legend has a brilliant story trying to get out but, for numerous reasons, it didn’t.

Kai (Reeves) is a half bread outcast with a secretive backstory and surprisingly great fighting skills living in the woods. Abandoned as a child, he’s reluctantly adopted by a Japanese Samurai clan who fear him to be a demon, except for the kindly master of the clan Lord Asano (Tanaka) and his daughter Mika (Shibasaki). A conspiracy is laid in place by Lord Kira (Asano) and an evil, shapeshifting sorceress (Kikuchi) to tale over and rule Asano’s land and people. The vengeful Ronin, led by Kai and Oishi (Sanada), set out on a journey to kill Kira and rescue Kai’s love, Mika.

The film was announced to star Reeves back in 2008.Through further development problems, the film was then scheduled for a release in November 2012 before, needing work on the 3D effects, slided to February 2013 and then, with huge reshoots required, Boxing Day 2013. The result is a big, big mess of an attempt to get across the story. The key mistake was making an mainly Japanese ensemble speak English. The Hollywood seasoned Sanada, Kikuchi and Asano are all great but the rest of the cast seem like they’d be much more comfortable speaking their own language.

Reeves performs his usual steely delivery as Kai, an invented character who has barely any effect on the story. He’s just elsewhere having his own battle while the actual Samurai do the work. On the upside, 47 Ronin is visually stunning and beautifully shot, despite Carl Rinsch’s complete lack of feature filmmaking. The film turns rural Japan into a brilliant fantasy world but the giant creatures and earless demons, while impressive, are a step too far.

47 Ronin’s got some rollicking Samurai action as well as some brilliant imagery and great performances from Sanada, Asano and Kikuchi. I kind of wish that Kai was abandoned and the story focused on the former three’s characters however as they are much more interesting. Morgan’s script is weak and often faltering due to him trying to smother the legend with elements ripped out of 300, The Lord of the Rings, Gladiator and, most obviously, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Were the film in Japanese, they’d be a lot less problems as, proved by Crouching Tiger, foreign language action flicks filmed entirely with foreign casts can still bring in brilliant box office and critical success. This won’t and hasn’t and has an ending that, rather than subduing the audience as it thinks it is, just leaves everyone thinking “huh?”. However there’s still a good film trying to claw its way out of the above.

5/10

“Rivers of blood and mountains of corpses will not stand in our way!”

Weekend box-office – 29th of December 2013 to 4th of January 2014 – will The Wolf of Wall Street howl down The Hobbit and 47 Ronin

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has ripped into the box office and is entering its third week in the UK and US box office. Last week, we pitched 47 Ronin racing up to it but a huge flop from a certain entry has flipped around my predictions.

US

1. The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug – Director: Peter Jackson – $30.0 million
2. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – $28.9 million
3. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – Adam McKay – $20.2 million
4. American Hustle – David O’Russell – $19.6 million
5. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese – $19.0 million

UK

1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson – £5.5 million
2. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – £3.5 million
3. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – Adam McKay – £2.6 million
4. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Ben Stiller – £2.4 million
5. 47 Ronin – Carl Rinsch – £1.4 million

Despite starring Keanu Reeves and having a huge $175 million budget, 47 Ronin has flopped entering fifth in the UK and ninth in America. I haven’t fully analysed this so I’m not sure if the fault is in marketing or reviews, of which they were mixed. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty hasn’t made an impression at the box office either with it missing out on the top 5. The Anchorman franchise has proved itself as a cult phenomenon with the sequel launching itself into blockbuster status with this week’s takings.

A disappointing 2/5 in the US and 1/5 in the UK takes this weeks score to 3/10 and the running total to 56/90. American Hustle has done brilliantly with its box office friendly cast. Next week, it’ll make a decent stab at the UK box office so here’s how I think it’ll do:

US

1. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – Christopher Landon
2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson
3. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – Adam McKay
4. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
5. American Hustle – David O’Russell

UK

1. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – Christopher Landon
2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson
3. American Hustle – David O’Russell
4. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
5. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – Adam McKay

By for now!

Ian McKellen in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, this week’s UK and US box office number one.

Weekend box office – 21st to 28th of December 2013 – will Hobbit 2 desolate Anchorman in battle of the sequels

Anchorman 2’s attempt to reach box office number one status was flawed already, sweeping in just one week after the major release of the month The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. However, it shot itself in the foot with the midweek “Burgundy Wednesday” slot. Last week, our predictions found The Hobbit 2 triumphant but let’s see how it really panned out.

US

1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Director: Peter Jackson – $31.5 million
2. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – Adam McKay – $26.8 million
3. Frozen -Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – $19.2 million
4. American Hustle – David O’Russell – $19.1 million
5. Saving Mr Banks – John Lee Hancock – $9.3 million

UK

1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson – £5.6 million
2. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – Adam McKay – £4.6 million
3. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee – £3.9 million
4. Walking With Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie – Neil Nightingale – £1 million
5. Dhoom 3 – Vijay Krishna Acharya – £0.9 million

The Hobbit is still desolating both sides of the Atlantic leaving the new releases scattered across the box office. Comedy sequel Anchorman 2 still could reach $100 million despite the initial setback. American Hustle has picked up real popularity with its excellent cast and traction from David O’Russell’s huge success with Silver Linings Playbook. In the UK, Walking With Dinosaurs has come pretty close to tanking after some shockingly poor reviews and barely scraped past Bollywood thriller sequel Dhoom 3, congrats to Dhoom’s unexpected success at the box office – the first Bollywood movie to be screened in IMAX. Weak comedy, TV adaptation The Harry Hill Movie entering at 7th place with £0.5 million while online game Moshi Monsters’ attempt at the big screen was a sore disappointment taking just £0.3 million.

3/5 in both the US and the UK takes my running total up to 53/80.

US

1. 47 Ronin – Carl Rinsch
2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson
3. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – Adam McKay
4. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Ben Stiller
5. The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese

UK

1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Peter Jackson
2. 47 Ronin – Carl Rinsch
3. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Ben Stiller
4. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – Adam McKay
5. Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee

Martin Freeman and John Callen in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, this week’s US and UK box office number one.

Christmas wishes from Tuorhoth Movies

Our success in 2013, our debut year, has been completely unexpected and we’ve had a great time with it. Our gift to you this Christmas is a big thank you for the support we’ve had. However, it’s about time we took a brief holiday break so Tuorhoth Movies will return on the Friday the 27th of December. To make up for the lack of content in the next week, we’ll throw in a review of a new release, perhaps Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, JC Chandor’s All is Lost Kenneth Branagh’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit or Carl Rinsch’s 47 Ronin! Tell us in the comments what movie should be next on the reviewing checklist! Shortly after the New Year, we’ll have special features on our favourite moments, stories and stars of the year before, in early February, the Tuorhoth Awards.

The ceremony will be voted on by four elite judges with all of the traditional categories such as Best Movie, Best Leading Actor/Actress, Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Screenplay, Best Musical Score, Kermode Award for Best Newcomer and so on. The previous three winners of Best Movie were Inception, Hugo and Les Miserables so there’s a variety of pictures going into the nominations. Leading the way this year are Captain Phillips, Gravity, Man of Steel, Thor: The Dark World, Despicable Me 2, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Rush, Now You See Me, The Lone Ranger, Pacific Rim, Much Ado About Nothing, World War Z, The Great Gatsby and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and with Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, RoboCop, 47 Ronin, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, American Hustle, 12 Years A Slave, All is Lost and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty still to come it’s not to be missed. Stay tuned for the many excitements in 2014 brought to you by Tuorhoth Movies!

The Tuorhoth Film Awards (TFA) – early February, exclusively on Tuorhoth Movies

Tuorhoth’s first predictions for the 2014 Academy Awards

October and November are seeing the releases of some of the huge contenders for the Oscars next year well before award season has begun. We’ve no idea how well any of these films are going to do critically seeing as none of them have actually been released to mainstream audiences. This isn’t an award by award breakdown but we’re giving you a brief guide as to what could be nominated in “the big six” awards at world’s biggest annual movie event. I’m also ranking the potential nominees by their likelihood of winning by colour: red means most likely to win, blue means second most likely and green means I’ve ranked them third.

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett – The Monuments Men

Cameron Diaz – The Counsellor

Julianne Moore – Carrie

Michelle Pfeiffer – The Family

Kristen Wiig – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips

Benedict Cumberbatch – 12 Years A Slave

Jean Dujardin – The Monuments Men

Jonah Hill – The Wolf of Wall Street

Tommy Lee Jones – The Family

Best Leading Actress

Sandra Bullock – Gravity

Nicole Kidman – Grace of Monaco

Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Chloe Grace Moretz – Carrie

Emma Thompson – Saving Mr. Banks

Best Leading Actor

George Clooney – Gravity

Steve Coogan – Philomena

Leonardo di Caprio – The Wolf of Wall Street

Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips or Saving Mr. Banks (undecided)

Ben Stiller – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Director

Alfonso Cauron – Gravity

George Clooney – The Monuments Men

Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips

Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street

Ben Stiller – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Best Picture

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

The Counsellor

Gravity

The Monuments Men

Out of the Furnace

Saving Mr. Banks

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Wolf of Wall Street

So, these are my beginning of season suggestions for who will be nominated at this prestigious event. We’re now going to talk through those films and actors that I haven’t included but could be major contenders. There’s a huge cast for The Monuments Men which I haven’t fully gone over. I’ve put George Clooney, who I’ve already selected for Best Director for this film, in for Best Leading Actor for Gravity not The MM but he could easily win for both. Stars of The Monuments Men like Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Hugh Bonneville and Bob Balaban could squeeze into the supporting actor position that I placed Dujardin in. Dujardin is already popular with the academy after his Lead Actor win in 2012 for The Artist and as likely could get a nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street instead of The Monuments Men.

Wolf of Wall Street could do very well. Jonah Hill may seem like a surprise nominee but remember that he got similar recognition at the 2012 Oscars for Moneyball. I’ve only put Nicole Kidman forward for this film but Grace of Monaco is a noteworthy contender for a Best Pic nomination. American Hustle is only in one award on my list but the stellar cast of Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence (whose already in for Hunger Games 2), Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale. I think it will win Best Original Screenplay however.

Other potential nominees are the aforementioned Bale for Out of the Furnace, for which Casey Affleck and Zoe Saldana could also be in contention. Dame Judi Dench could get into the actress categories for Philomena. Robert De Niro stars in both American Hustle and The Family and could crack into the shortlists. Colin Farrel and Paul Giamatti came close to my lists for Saving Mr. Banks. 12 Years A Slave could through in Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano and Quvenzhane Wallis back into the award scene while The Counsellor could do the same for Fassbender, Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem as well as it’s director Sir Ridley Scott. We can’t rule out other entries like All is Lost with Robert Redford, The Book Thief with Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson or Inside Llewyn Davis (the Coen brothers’ folk tale with Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan). Spike Lee’s mysterious action remake Oldboy could creep in with it’s stars Josh Brolin, Samuel L Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen, Hannah Simone and Sharlto Copley.

It’s not too late to remove this year’s earlier hits like The Great Gatsby (Baz Luhrmann directing Leonardo di Caprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton), Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen directing Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin), Prisoners (Hugh Jackman, Paul Dano, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard and Jake Gyllenhaal in the directing of Denis Villeneuve) and Rush (Ron Howard’s biopic with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl). Blockbuster action films like the upcoming The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Ender’s Game or 47 Ronin have been known to do well as the Oscars (see The Dark Knight, Inception and a few others) and there’s usually a surprise foreign language film in the mix (like Amour). There’s a whole variety of films that could be next year’s nominees but I think the leaders are: Gravity, Captain Phillips, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Monuments Men and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Find out more about these films at our Future Films pages for 2013 and 2014.

The 86th Academy Awards will be hosted by Ellen De Generes and will be on ABC on March 2nd 2014

Tell us in the comments who YOU think will win big at the 2014 Oscars.