20. Gravity
Alfonso Cuaron's first feature length film since 2006's Children of Men, Gravity has been landing on a lot of "most anticipated movies of 2013" lists, and it is understandable why. The ambitious project tells the story of two astronauts stuck floating together in outer space after an accident on a space station. According to reports, the movie is almost completely filmed in front of a green screen and has an estimated budget of $80 million, which is enormous for a film that sounds essentially like an art-house project. The high level of anticipation and expectation among cinephiles has lead to an overestimation of its Oscar prospects in this humble prognosticators opinion. Peruse the Oscar blogosphere and you'll see this film listed relatively high in Oscar prediction lists, but even if the movie is wonderful, it sounds too high-brow for the Academy's taste. Since the expansion to ten Best Picture nominees in 2010, the Academy has shown a penchant for sticking up for at least one formalist, auteur-dominated film every year, as illustrated by Amour, The Tree of Life, Black Swan, and A Serious Man. If Gravity turns out to be this year's choice de jour among fans of art films, then it could snag a spot. With former Oscar-winners George Clooney and Sandra Bullock starring as the two astronauts lost in space, the film is likely to get a fair amount of press as well, so it's all going to come down to the reaction the film gets.