The floodgates have opened, to say the least. Nominations and winners for a wide variety of awards have been popping up all week, culminating with the AFI (American Film Institute) noting its Top 10 films for 2013. Out of the many Best Picture winners and nominations, there’s a few trends I can see that point to how this years Oscars could shape up.

First off, 12 Years A Slave is an unstoppable force, but it’s Her that’s really surprising me. This film, which Warner Bros. has been oddly secretive about all through Awards Season, to the point where I thought it wouldn’t even be a factor in the grand scheme of things. Yet, the past week has been nothing short of outstanding for the feature, which has exceeded expectations left and right, with it even making the list for AFI’s Top 10 films. Thanks to this, I’ve added Her to the Best Picture roster officially, which comes at the cost of booting Lee Daniels The Butler out, which seems to be fading away from the race.

Just some miscellaneous things before we move onto the official predictions; first off, Nebraska, which hasn’t been doing gangbusters at the box office, is still doing fantastic on the awards circuit, making it’s participation in the Best Picture race almost guaranteed. Speaking of box office, Inside Llewyn Davis made tons of cash this past weekend, debuting in 4 theatres to a massive $400,000. I’m interested to see the film for myself when it expands to more local theatres (the Angelika should get it this forthcoming weekend, so hooray for that), but word of mouth seems to be phenomenal, and I hope the film matches my sky high expectations.

Don’t forget that the Golden Globe nominations are this Friday. Simply because I can, I’ve tossed my predictions for the two Best Picture categories at that awards ceremony in here, although I’m almost certainly off here since I’m unsure which movies fit into certain categories (would Blue Jasmine count as a drama? I think so, but lord knows with these guys). I can’t wait to see them and analyze what they mean; we’re finally in the heat of Oscar season and I love it!

Now, our nomination predictions.

Golden Globes:

Best Picture (Drama):

Gravity

Her

Nebraska

12 Years A Slave

Captain Phillips

Best Picture (Comedy or Musical):

Enough Said

Inside Llewyn Davis

Before Midnight

American Hustle

The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Picture:

* Gravity

* Her

* Captain Phillips

* The Wolf of Wall Street

* Inside Llewyn Davis

* American Hustle

* Dallas Buyers Club

* 12 Years A Slave

* Saving Mr. Banks

* Nebraska

Best Director:

* Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

* Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)

* Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave)

* The Coen Brothers (Inside Llewyn Davis)

* Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Actor:

* Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

* Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

* Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave)

* Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

* Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf Of Wall Street)

Best Actress:

* Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

* 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)