With only three more sleeps until the 2013 Oscars are handed out in Los Angeles, we bring you the nominees for this year's Best Picture. Here are the final three - VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE below and see how it fares on Sunday...
Lincoln:
Another labour of love from Steven Spielberg, this time telling the story of Honest Abe and how he juggled the challenges of finishing a Civil War AND abolishing slavery. This isn't a story told on the battlefields, but in the offices of a tiny White House and Congress, where a scene-stealing bewigged Tom Harvey Jones holds court. But he PROBABLY won't be holding a statuette on Sunday evening, while Daniel Day-Lewis PROBABLY will. With odds currently at 1/70 (yes, I have got that the right way round!) for him to collect his third Oscar, I think it's probably safe to call him the favourite but, with Ben Affleck's name missing from the Director Shortlist, Spielberg might have to dig out his own acceptance speech and give it a quick rehash too...
Silver Linings Playbook:
This striking drama comes from the pen of director David O. Russell, based in part on the challenges faced by his own son (hence his emotional speech when collecting his recent Best Screenplay BAFTA). This film boasts, uniquely this year, of nominations in all four acting categories for its stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro and Jacqui Weaver. It may be squashed out of Best Picture status by some of the bigger juggernaut, but I don't expect it to come away empty-handed, with all these acting noms, plus writing depth, too, with a career-turning effort from Bradley Cooper to boot...
Zero Dark Thirty:
There has seldom been so much pre-viewing controversy around a film as for Kathryn Bigelow's thriller, based on the CIA hunt for Osama Bin Laden, followed by his capture and killing by US Navy Seals. While Bigelow has been cut out of the Best Director running to repeat her triumph of 'The Hurt Locker', politics shouldn't, but may well, interfere with due plaudits for this engrossing, perplexing, challenging depiction of the risks involved and ethical dilemmas posed by the duty of capturing a terrorist. And Jessica Chastain doesn't shy from her duties, either...