Oscar Predictions 2013: Zero Hour

Well, it's that time of the year again where the Academy gets together to honor the most inoffensive underwhelming films of the year and give tangential recognition to the things that are kind of out there but not too out there Mr. Paul Thomas Anderson! As such, I sit down the day before the big ceremony to make my final predictions. Even the categories no one seems to care about. Go behind the politics, behind the machine, put all my analytic credibility on the line for a bunch of little statues. As usual, I have ranked the nominees in each category from most likely to win to least likely. So who will win? Lets find out!

This Hell I'm Living

Les Misérables (Hooper, 2012)

The musical has kind of been on life support for a while. Yeah, I hear it is thriving in Bollywood to an extent, but even Disney has strayed from full on musicals in favor of more 'traditional' narratives in recent years. Sure every so often one may pop up (though it does kind of feel like forever since Nine hit the scene as the last major musical), but none seem to have come with the same type of fanfare or excitement attached to Tom Hooper's adaptation of Les Misérables. As one of the most beloved musicals of all time (or so I'm told), the Academy Award winning best director attempts to bring a bombastic sense of this sprawling tale of injustice and revolution to the big screen. Yet, following up the middling The Damned United and the irritating The King's Speech with such revered material leaves me wondering if Hooper has bitten off more than he can chew.