6. Carol
Possible Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Todd Haynes), Best Actress (Rooney Mara), Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), Best Adapted Screenplay (Phyllis Nagy), Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, Carol tells the story of a department store clerk (Rooney Mara) who strikes up a lesbian romance with an older, married woman (Cate Blanchett). Set in 1950's New York City, the film is a period piece melodrama, a genre which has often struck the Academy's fancy. The period piece aspects of the film should garner it some attention from the below-the-line branches, but the film's two red-hot actresses, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, are the real draw and could put Carol in the conversation for Best Picture. I also have the feeling that Carol may be the film that gets writer/director Todd Haynes some serious Oscar recognition. Haynes has been at the edges of Oscar's eye for awhile now, receiving a nomination as a writer for Far from Heaven, but none of his films has made it to the big league yet. His five-part miniseries for HBO, Mildred Pierce, did well for itself on the television rewards circuit though, and considering the fact that there are no new films from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Spike Jonze, and Quentin Tarantino in 2014, the auteur-ist and cinephile crowd of the Academy could get behind Haynes and his film if Carol actually delivers the goods.