Academy Awards 2011 Predictions

It is without doubt the most awaited awards ceremony of the year. Honoring the best of the industry for the work that they have done over the past year, the Oscars is also one of the most coveted awards in the industry. Winning an Oscar is a mark of your performance and a recognition of one's brilliance from a jury made of one's peers. That is what perhaps makes this award ceremony as special as it is. This February, on Sunday, the 27th, which is the Academy Awards 2011 date, the stalwarts of the movie business will descend at the Kodak Theater to present the Academy Awards to those who have sparkled on the silver screen and behind it, astonishing us by their sheer understanding of the media and their ability to entertain us, make us laugh, and move us to tears. But what do the Academy Awards 2011 predictions look like? Who are the front-runners in this race? Let us see who will walk away with those golden statuettes this year. Presenting to you, the predictions for Academy Awards 2011.

Oscar 2011 Predictions

Before we see who have the best shots at winning in each category, let's take a look at the Academy Awards 2011 nominations. While the Academy presents awards in twenty four different categories, for the purpose of our predictions, we take a look at the eight main categories at the Oscars this year. So here it goes, the Oscars 2011 nominations and the predicted winners are...

Nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Actor	Movie
Colin Firth	The King's Speech
James Franco	127 Hours
Jesse Eisenberg	The Social Network
Jeff Bridges	True Grit
Javier Bardem	Biutiful

Possible Winner: There is hardly any competition here because if the Golden Globes and SAG awards are anything to go by, then Colin Firth is definitely going to pick up another award for his kitty with the Oscars this year. We do believe though that if the Oscar nominations are vetted, then James Franco is a dark horse in this category for his gripping performance as mountaineer Aron Ralston but Firth was brilliant and is difficult to beat.

Nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Actress	Movie
Natalie Portman	Black Swan
Annette Bening	The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence	Winter's Bone
Nicole Kidman	Rabbit Hole
Michelle Williams	Blue Valentine

Possible Winner: She has won all the major awards this year, so there is nothing to say that Natalie Portman will not win in this category for Black Swan for her beautiful performance as a troubled ballet dancer. Of course, there may be an upset in the form of Annette Bening for her impressive performance in The Kids are All Right. But as of now, our predictions say that the winner will be Portman.

Nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Actor	Movie
Christian Bale	The Fighter
Mark Ruffalo	The Kids Are All Right
Jeremy Renner	The Town
John Hawkes	Winter's Bone
Geoffrey Rush	The King's Speech

Possible Winner: While Geoffrey Rush does have a chance at the Oscar for his turn as the speech therapist who helps the King with his stammer in The King's Speech, our ballot sways in the favor of Christian Bale for The Fighter.

Nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Actress	Movie
Helena Bonham Carter	The King's Speech
Amy Adams	The Fighter
Jacki Weaver	Animal Kingdom
Hailee Steinfeld	True Grit
Melissa Leo	The Fighter

Possible Winner: The Fighter seems to be having a good run, with two of its actresses nominated in this category. Melissa Leo has been on the list of Golden Globe winners 2011 and has picked up the SAG, and frankly with due respect to all the actresses in this category, she seems all set to pick up the Oscar as well for her terrific performance.

Nominations for Best Director
Director	Movie
Darren Aronofsky	Black Swan
David Fincher	The Social Network
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen	True Grit
David O. Russell	The Fighter
Tom Hooper	The King's Speech

Possible Winner: Most fans are still miffed at Christopher Nolan's exclusion from this list, but what is done is done. So who heads our list in the predictions for the winner in this category? While we believe Darren Aronofsky deserves the accolades for his psychological thriller Black Swan, the award will probably go to the brilliant David Fincher for The Social Network. And deservedly so.

Nominations for Best Picture 2011
Movie	Producers
Black Swan	Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin
The Fighter	David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg
Inception	Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right	Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray
The King's Speech	Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin
127 Hours	Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson
The Social Network	Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán
Toy Story 3	Darla K. Anderson
True Grit	Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Winter's Bone	Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin

Possible Winner: Continuing with the ten films nomination list this year, there are many deserving films on the list. The fight though, will probably be between The King's Speech, The Social Network, and Black Swan. The Social Network won at the Golden Globes. With the Black Swan a little too dark for the Academy's taste, unless The King's Speech manages an upset and Oscar predictions are overturned, the movie about Facebook is all set to be the winner here.

Nominations for Best Animated Feature Film
Movie	Director
Toy Story 3	Lee Unkrich
The Illusionist	Sylvain Chomet
How to Train Your Dragon	Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois

Possible Winner: The third movie in the series, Toy Story 3 seems all set to pick up another award having already won at the Golden Globes. How to Train a Dragon may seem like a strong contender according to predictions but the Toy Story sequel was a better movie according to us.

Nominations for Best Foreign Language Film
Movie	Country
Biutiful	Mexico
Dogtooth	Greece
In a Better World	Denmark
Incendies	Canada
Outside the Law	Algeria

Possible Winner: Its lead actor is nominated in the Best Actor category and by all reason, Biutiful is set to win the award for Best Foreign Language Film, unless Dogtooth manages to garner more support and overturns our Oscars 2011 predictions.

The predictions made in this article are subjective and are based on personal preference and the winners of other top awards this season. The Oscars will go to those the Academy deems worthy at the ceremony hosted by Anne Hathaway and James Franco. Till then we wait with bated breath.