Our Oscar Picks and Predictions • Critic Speak

Rest assured: this is the only Oscar predictions post you’ll see on Critic Speak all year. While the rest of the Internet film community becomes obsessed with statuettes come November, writing almost exclusively about precursors and frontrunners and “Oscar buzz” for the next four months, we pride ourselves on keeping the focus on real criticism. But it is fun to draft up picks and predictions on the day of the ceremony to make the four-hour telecast more tolerable.

The 85th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Seth MacFarlane, air tonight on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. Pacific. You can view the full list of nominees here.

Without further adieu, our picks (who we want to win out of the nominees) in the right-hand columns and our predictions (who we think will win) are in the left-hand columns.

	Danny Baldwin’s Prediction	James Frazier’s Prediction	Danny Baldwin’s Personal Pick	James Frazier’s Personal Pick
Picture	“Argo”	“Argo”	“Amour”	“Zero Dark Thirty”
Director	David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”	Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln”	Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”	Ang Lee, “Life of Pi”
Actor	Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”	Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”	Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”	Denzel Washington, “Flight”
Actress	Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”	Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”	Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”	Jennifer Lawrence, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Supporting Actor	Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”	Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”	Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained”	Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”
Supporting Actress	Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”	Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”	Amy Adams, “The Master”	Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”
Original Screenplay	Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”	Quentin Tarantino, “Django Unchained”	Michael Haneke, “Amour”	“Moonrise Kingdom”
Adapted Screenplay	Chris Terrio, Argo”	Chris Terrio, “Argo”	Tony Kushner, “Lincoln”	David O. Russell, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Animated Feature	“Brave”	“Wreck-It Ralph”	“ParaNorman”	n/a
Cinematography	“Life of Pi”	“Life of Pi”	“Skyfall”	“Skyfall”
Foreign Film	“Amour”	“Amour”	“Amour”	n/a
Documentary Feature	“Searching for Sugar Man”	“Searching for Sugar Man”	“Searching for Sugar Man”	n/a
Editing	“Argo”	“Argo”	“Zero Dark Thirty”	“Zero Dark Thirty”
Costume Design	“Anna Karenina”	“Anna Karenina”	“Anna Karenina”	“Lincoln”
Makeup & Hairstyling	“Les Misérables”	“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”	“Hitchcock”	“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
Production Design	“Anna Karenina”	“Les Misérables”	“Anna Karenina”	“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
Original Score	“Argo”	“Life of Pi”	“Skyfall”	“Life of Pi”
Original Song	“Skyfall”	“Skyfall”	“Skyfall”	“Skyfall”
Sound Editing	“Argo”	“Life of Pi”	“Zero Dark Thirty”	“Skyfall”
Sound Mixing	“Les Misérables”	“Les Misérables”	“Skyfall”	“Les Misérables”
Visual Effects	“Life of Pi”	“Life of Pi”	“Life of Pi”	“Prometheus”
Animated Short	“Paperman”	“Paperman”	“Head Over Heels”	n/a
Live-Action Short	“Curfew”	“Curfew”	“Henry”	n/a
Documentary Short	“Inocente”	“Open Heart”	“Inocente”	n/a

Danny’s prediction score: 19 out of 24
James’ prediction score: 17 out of 24