My Oscar Nominations Predictions

The nominees for the 87th Academy Awards (Oscars) will be announced this Thursday, January 15th at 7:30 am CST in advance of the big show on February 22nd on ABC-TV.

Here are my predictions for the top 6 awards. I forsee this year's Oscars being dominated by several films, including Birdman, Boyhood, The Imitation Game, Selma and The Theory of Everything.

Best Picture:
Boyhood, Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Selma, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash, Gone Girl, Foxcatcher and American Sniper

Unbroken, Nightcrawler and Interstellar also have all good chances, but these films have been overlooked lately in several major awards, I see them only picking up a few noms in some of the tech categories.

Best Director:
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Birdman
Ana DuVernay, Selma
David Fincher, Gone Girl
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game, Clint Eastwood for American Sniper and Damien Chazelle for Whiplash are all strong possibilities but Anderson and his film have picked up considerable momentum lately, so I expect him to take the final slot.

Best Actor:
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
David Oyelowo, Selma
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler

The first four all easily make the cut. For the fifth slot, I could easily interchange Gyllenhaal for Steve Carrell in Foxcatcher, but for now going with Gyllenhaal, who has had stronger momentum going into awards season. Bradley Cooper for American Sniper and Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner also have small chances, but since their films haven't generated much buzz lately I'm sticking with Gyllenhaal.

Best Actress:
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Jennifer Aniston, Cake

Much like Best Actor, the first four should all easily make it in, with the fifth slot going to either Aniston for Cake (it's hard to believe I'd ever see Aniston here, but good for her) who has been heavily promoting her film, or to Golden Globe winner and multiple Oscar nominee Amy Adams, who has been racking up Oscar noms (but no wins yet) in Streep-like fashion.

Best Supporting Actor:
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Edward Norton, Birdman
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
Robert Duvall, The Judge

This award really belongs to Simmons' ferocious bully teacher role, but Norton, Hawke and Ruffalo were all strong as well. The fifth slot should go to veteran Duvall, who was good in the otherwise weak, overlong The Judge, but I'd rather see it go to Tom Wilkinson, who was brilliantly memorable as LBJ in Selma.

Best Supporting Actress:
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Emma Stone, Birdman
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year

Arquette, Stone and Knightley are all in easily. Streep gets in too, and while she always seems to snag a nom, she was admittedly the best part about Into the Woods. I'd prefer to see Laura Dern's hippy chick mom in "Wild" or Rene Russo's ambitious news director from "Nightcrawler" in the top 5, but I'm good with Chastain, who was very good in A Most Violent Year, which sees wide release in late January.

As for the rest:

Birdman, Boyhood, The Imitation Game, Selma, Foxcatcher, Theory, Whiplash and Grand Budapest should all score multiple noms in Screenplay, Score, Cinematography and Editing categories, along with Unbroken and Interstellar.