Best Director
Will Win: Alfonso Cuarón
Should Win: Steve McQueen
Surprise Win: Martin Scorsese As inevitable as Best Actress and Best Picture, Cuarón is almost 100% guaranteed to take the Best Director Oscar. And whilst Gravity doesn't quite have the obvious auterial touch of Children of Men or even The Prisoner of Azkaban, it is a phenomenal achievement in terms of technological advancement, and the project was driven by Cuarón and his son from the very start. But as great an achievement as Gravity is, and as talented a filmmaker as Cuarón is, it should be Steve McQueen taking the award. There's every chance he will, if 12 Years A Slave sweeps up all the big awards, and here's hoping he does. McQueen is one of Britain's best directors working today; he's created a profound and important film that's astonishingly well-directed in its tone, its performances and its own world; and he should have won the award for Shame a couple of years ago. With Martin Scorsese suggesting he may retire in a few films' time, the academy may be rushing to make up for his lack of recognition until The Departed. Still, worse directors could get it than Scorsese for what everyone believes to be his best film in a long time, perhaps one of the best films of his career. Much like DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street could easily come out of nowhere and surprise us all by taking home the big awards.