4. Nebraska
I wasn't a big fan of Alexander Payne's last effort, The Descendants, but it definitely played well with the Academy types, earning five nominations and a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. Before that, Sideways managed to earn five nominations and a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar as well. Looking into my crystal ball then, I predict Nebraska will earn five nominations and a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar (which is actually impossible seeing as the film is an original screenplay). Nebraska, an original script from Bob Nelson, is a road trip movie about an aging alcoholic father and his estranged son taking the trip from Montana to Nebraska in order to claim the Mega Sweepstakes prize the father thinks he has won. Starring Bruce Dern as the father and SNL alum Will Forte as his disgruntled son, Payne's original vision for the film was a black-and-white drama. Somewhere along the line things changed though as the script was supposedly rewritten with a much more comedic bent to it. Without any huge stars backing it, this may just be more of a personal movie for Payne than an attention-seeking awards player, but I'm still betting it will tickle the Academy's fancy.