Though awards season officially started in September – dovetailing with the Toronto International Film Festival – it takes months before the Oscar picture becomes clear enough to call.
Now that the critics groups, guilds and Golden Globes have chimed in, our Bruce Kirkland, Liz Braun and Jim Slotek have processed the information and offer up their predictions in advance of Thursday’s nomination announcement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
The verdict: it’ll be a love-fest for Richard Linklater’s 12-year real-time coming of age story Boyhood and the Alejandro González Iñárritu/Michael Keaton trippy meta-drama, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Here are the rest of their calls in the major categories. The official nominations will be announced Thursday morning