3. Unbroken
Possible Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Angelina Jolie), Best Actor (Jack O'Connell), Best Adapted Screenplay (Joel and Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravense, and William Nicholson), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, Best Score, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing Now we come to the film that is currently topping most Oscar prognosticators' lists. Unbroken is an adaptation of the biography of Louis Zamperini, a remarkable man who was an Olympic athlete in the 1936 Olympics and later survived a harrowing experience as a Japanese POW during WWII. a synopsis that almost sounds like a mix between The Bridge on the River Kwai, Chariots of Fire, and 12 Years a Slave, all previous Best Picture winners. The movie is being directed by none other than Academy Award-winning actress Angelina Jolie. Ms. Jolie has directed one film thus far, In the Land of Blood and Honey, and while that film didn't exactly bowl over critics and audiences, she will have some good company helping her out in her sophomore effort. To start, among the few writers who helped sculpt the script are the Coen Brothers. Behind the camera Jolie has regular Coens' collaborator, and the consummate cinematographer himself, Roger Deakins, whose visual work should not be underestimated. While the film lacks a lot of big name actors in front of the camera, relative newbie Jack O'Connell has received terrific notices in a number of smaller films, and this could be the movie that makes him a household name. Unbroken is definitely being positioned as a major awards player in 2014, so as long as it has some substance, expect Unbroken to be in the conversation.