3. Nebraska
After two Best Director nominations (Sideways, The Descendants) and winning 2 Oscars for his writing, Alexander Payne will be looking to win Best Director outright with Nebraska, a drama about an alcoholic father (Bruce Dern) and his estranged son (Will Forte) travelling from Montana to Nebraska to claim some prize money, but along the way, they meet various people to whom the father owes money. Payne has demonstrated in Sideways that he can nail minimalist narratives, and I expect no different here. Being shot in black and white against the wishes of the distributor and making the audacious decision to cast Will Forte, one gets the feeling Alexander Payne knows exactly what he's doing, even if to the outside viewer it would seem like a gamble.