At the AFI Fest over the past weekend, one of the more secretive Oscar hopefuls for the season debuted; Out Of The Furnace. I’ve made my anticipation for the film no secret, and my admiration for director Scott Cooper knows no bounds, but it’s prospects in a competitive Oscar season were hazy at best. Hazy that is, until the film premiered to rave reviews. While the films dark material is likely to prevent it from truly gaining wins in the Oscar race, not to mention Christian Bale also being in the more high-profile flick American Hustle, there are still several factors that could lead it to victory. The biggest one in it’s favor is the fact the distributor Relativity has literally nothing else in the Oscar race this year; there’s no other movie to distract them from promoting Out of The Furnace. To boot, Scott Coopers previous film, the insanely underrated Crazy Heart, was able to garner Jeff Bridges an Oscar, so perhaps some goodwill from that film will translate over to this film. Either way, we definitely need to keep an eye on this film.

Saving Mr. Banks also showed up again at the AFI Fest an reiterated it’s status as a major player in this years Oscar race. While Tom Hanks has been getting major raves for his role as Walt Disney (and frankly I can think of no other American actor who would be better at portraying the man) I’m still wary of his chances in the Best Supporting Actor category. Also, according to Entertainment Weekly, Amy Adams will qualify as Best Actress in this years Oscars, so I’ve moved her into that category.

Finally, I’ve decided to add my Best Director predictions into this list. As last years chaotic Oscars showed, voters can be fickle at what they choose for Best Director, so I’ve gone for some off the wall choices to suit their recent attitude. Check it out, along with the rest of the nominations, below.

Best Picture:

* Gravity

* Lee Daniels’ The Butler

* Captain Phillips

* The Wolf of Wall Street

* Inside Llewyn Davis

* American Hustle

* Blue Jasmine

* 12 Years A Slave

* Saving Mr. Banks

* Before Midnight

Best Director:

* Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

* Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)

* Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave)

* The Coen Brothers (Inside Llewyn Davis)

* Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)

Best Actor:

* Forest Whitaker (Lee Daniels’ The Butler)

* Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

* Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave)

* Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

* Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Best Actress:

* Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

* Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

* Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)

* Amy Adams (American Hustle)

* Judi Dench (Philomena)

Best Supporting Actor:

* Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

* Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)

* Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)

* Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave)

* Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Best Supporting Actress

* June Squibb (Nebraska)

* Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

* Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave)

* Oprah Winfrey (Lee Daniels’ The Butler)

* Scarlett Johansson (Her)