3. Woody Allen - Blue Jasmine
As previously mentioned in this article, Woody Allen has more Oscar nominations as a writer than any other human being in the history of the Academy, an achievement that is unlikely to matter to Allen himself given his disdain for the Oscars. Still, writing fifteen screenplays that was recognized by any awards body, much less the Academy, is astoundingly impressive. Even with Allen's copious rate of output, he has managed to get a screenplay nomination for about every third film he does, and as any baseball player will tell you, a career batting average of .333 is nothing to sneeze at. This is why, despite the increasingly probabilistic quality of his films, every Oscar pundit is wise to include Woody Allen in their lineup of potential writing nominees. For every To Rome with Love and Whatever Works, there is a Midnight in Paris, shaming those who dared write-off Allen as "yesterday's news". Undeniably though, you are always playing a roulette wheel by including Allen in any future predictions, but I am slightly more optimistic than average that this year's "new Allen" may go over well with the writers branch. While the film's plot hasn't been fully disclosed, it is said to be loosely based on the events of the Bernie Madoff fraud case. Cate Blanchett apparently stars as the wife of a big time stock broker who, when her husband is thrown in jail for fraud, loses everything and is forced to pack up her bags and move from New York to San Francisco. The film also has a terrific cast of supporting players in the likes of Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sally Hawkins, comedian Andrew Dice Clay, and the 21st Century Woody Allen himself, Louis C.K. Early buzz from those that have seen the film say it is quite good, on par with such Allen classics as Crimes and Misdemeanors. If this is true, you can chalk up Allen's sixteenth writing nomination right now, but even if it's only three-quarters of the way true, I still like Allen's chances at yet another Oscar nod.