Share Your 2013 Oscar Nomination Picks and Read Our Predictions

In case you weren't paying attention, the Academy Award nominations for this year were announced Thursday morning.

And like many film fans, I anxiously awaited to see who and what would be tapped as the best in 2012.

I anticipated seeing Kathryn Bigelow getting another best director nomination for Zero Dark Thirty. I also had hoped that Marie Cotillard, whose performance in a French film Rust and Bone is said to be powerful, would get a nod. The real stunner for me was that Jean-Louis Trintignant, a true titan of French cinema, was not nominated for Amour, a shattering film about age and loss. 

It's a bit early to make predictions, and while I haven't seen all of the films (I'll be seeing another Saturday), here are my predictions. 

Best Picture is easy. Lincoln, Steven Spielberg's monumental epic about our 16th president's battles to end slavery and the Civil War. Historical inaccuracies aside, it was a fine piece of movie making. Three of the principal components of this film—Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field—will win their third Oscar. The other possible winners are Argo or Beasts of the Southern Wild, but I'd just be guessing.

For best actress I'm going out on a limb and select Emmanuelle Riva, an icon of the French cinema, for her performance in Amour, which I think should be the best film of the year. Riva may be best known to American audiences for her role in the French New Wave classic, Hiroshima Mon Amour. Her performance in Amour is heartbreaking, and the film itself won the prestigious Palme D'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival. I'm planning to see it this weekend. 

Who will win best supporting actor? This one's tough. They're all past Oscar winners and all did great work this year. I'd put my money on Robert De Niro for Silver Linings Playbook, or Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master.

Best Foreign Film? Easy, that's Amour.

Here's a hard one: Best Animated Film. I loved The Pirates! Band of Misfits. The Wallace & Gromit guys did it again! But I don't think it will win.

The 85th Academy Awards will be at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue on Feb. 24 and telecast live on ABC.

But let us know what you think. What do you think should have been nominated or what do you think was omitted. No awards for correct prognostication. Just the satisfaction of knowing that you got it right!