Every month until Oscar season and then regularly after that, we’ll be posting our predictions for the 84th Oscars. Of course, this is still September, so take the predictions with a grain of salt. No one knows what’s going to happen between now and Nominations morning, so let’s just get ready to have some fun in the meantime. This is the first month where some images are starting to come into focus with the major film festivals having winded down and several promising entries emerged into the marketplace. We shall see how things go from here on out.

The Academy changed their nominations procedures for both Best Animated Feature and Best Picture. This created a bit of a quandary for us as the only way we could adequately share our predictions while giving the possibility of fewer than 10 (Picture) or 5 (Animated Feature) nominees. Now, the rules are different for each category. Animated Feature could have anywhere from 0 to 5 nominations depending on the quantity of animated features in release.

The rules for Best Picture are a bit more complex, To get a nomination for Best Picture, you must have at least 5% of the total vote. This isn’t necessarily just first place votes as the preferential balloting method the Academy uses, which is unnecessarily complex, can put votes into a film’s column even if they are second- or third-place votes. How this will all play out is a mystery to us. All we do know is that Best Picture could have anywhere from 5 to 10 nominations. There could be 5 or 7 or 8 or 10…we won’t know until the nominations are announced. Each of our contributors selected ten films for Best Picture and ranked them in the order they think the film is most likely to get an Oscar nomination. We then totaled the results and ranked the final list by our totals. 10 points for a first place vote, 9 for a second and so forth. In addition, we still color-code each predictions so you know how many of us put that contender on our lists. Below are the results of our labor.

KEY:

BEST PICTURE

• (28) War Horse (9)(M) (10)(M) (9)(M)
• (26) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (7)(M) (9)(A) (10)(M)
• (20) The Ides of March (6)(M) (8)(M) (6)(A)
• (19) The Descendants (8)(M) (7)(M) (New)(4)(S)
• (19) Midnight in Paris (5)(A) (5)(A) (9)(A)
• (19) The Tree of Life (1)(M) (1)(M) (7)(M) (10)(M)
• (14) The Artist (6)(A) (8)(M)
• (14) J. Edgar (10)(M) (3)(A) (1)(M)
• (11) A Dangerous Method (New)(3)(S) (8)(M)
• (11) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (5)(M) (2)(M) (4)(A)
• (9) Moneyball (New)(4)(S) (3)(M) (2)(A)
• (7) Carnage (7)(M)
• (6) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (6)(A)
• (5) The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2)(A) (3)(M)
• (5) The Iron Lady (5)(M)
• (4) The Help (4)(A)
• (2) Young Adult (2)(M)
• (1) Hugo (1)(M)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• (16) Rango (4)(M) (3)(A) (4)(M) (5)(M)
• (9) Happy Feet 2 (5)(M) (4)(A)
• (8) Kung Fu Panda 2 (3)(M) (2)(M) (3)(M)
• (6) Cars 2 (5)(M) (1)(M)
• (5) The Adventures of Tintin (New)(5)(S)
• (5) Rio (2)(A) (1)(M) (2)(M)
• (4) Winnie the Pooh (1)(A) (3)(M)
• (2) Arthur Christmas (2)(A)

BEST DIRECTOR

• Tomas Alfredson – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (New)(S) (M)
• Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris (A)
• George Clooney – The Ides of March (M)
• David Cronenberg – A Dangerous Method (M) (M)
• Stephen Daldry – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (A) (M)
• Clint Eastwood – J. Edgar (M)
• David Fincher – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (A)
• Michael Haznavicius – The Arist (A)
• Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life (A) (M)
• Alexander Payne – The Descendants (M)
• Roman Polanski – Carnage (M) (M)
• Jason Reitman – Young Adult (M)
• Steven Spielberg – War Horse (M) (M) (M)

BEST ACTOR

• George Clooney – The Descendants (M) (M) (M)
• Leonardo DiCaprio – J. Edgar (M) (M)
• Jean Dujardin – The Artist (A) (New)(S)
• Michael Fassbender – Shame (New)(S)
• Ryan Gosling – The Ides of March (M)
• Tom Hanks – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (M)
• Viggo Mortensen – A Dangerous Method (M)
• Gary Oldman – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy (M) (A) (A)
• Brad Pitt – Moneyball (New)(S) (New)(S) (New)(S)
• Brad Pitt – The Tree of Life (M)
• Christoph Waltz – Carnage (M) (M)

BEST ACTRESS

• Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs (A) (M) (A) (M)
• Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia (A)
• Jodie Foster – Carnage (M)
• Elizabeth Olsen – Martha Marcy May Marlene (M) (New)(S) (M)
• Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady (M) (M) (M) (M)
• Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk About Kevin (M) (M)
• Charlize Theron – Young Adult (New)(S)
• Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn (M) (M)
• Kate Winslet – Carnage (A) (M)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Kenneth Branagh – My Life With Marilyn (M)
• Jim Broadbent – The Iron Lady (A) (M)
• Albert Brooks – Drive (New)(S) (A) (New)(S)
• Michael Fassbender – A Dangerous Method (M)
• Robert Forster – The Descendants (New)(S)
• John Goodman – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (M)
• Armie Hammer – J. Edgar (M)
• Jonah Hill – Moneyball (A)
• Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Ides of March (A)
• Viggo Mortensen – A Dangerous Method (New)(S)
• Nick Nolte – Warrior (New)(S)
• Sean Penn – The Tree of Life (M)
• Christopher Plummer – Beginners (M) (M) (M) (A)
• John C. Reilly – Carnage (M)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Sandra Bullock – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (A)
• Jessica Chastain – The Tree of Life (M) (M)
• Viola Davis – The Help (S) (A) (A)
• Judi Dench – J. Edgar (M) (M)
• Judi Dench – My Week with Marilyn (M)
• Jodie Foster – Carnage (M)
• Keira Knightley – A Dangerous Method (New)(S) (M)
• Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs (New)(S) (M)
• Vanessa Redgrave – Coriolanus (A)
• Octavia Spencer – The Help (New)(A)
• Marisa Tomei – The Ides of March (M)
• Kate Winslet – Carnage (M)
• Evan Rachel Wood – The Ides of March (M) (M)
• Shailene Woodley – The Descendants (New)(S)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• The Artist (A) (A)
• Contagion (New)(S)
• The Iron Lady (M)
• J. Edgar (M) (A) (M)
• Like Crazy (New)(S)
• Martha Marcy May Marlene (New)(S)
• Midnight in Paris (M) (A) (M) (A)
• The Skin That I Inhabit (M)
• The Tree of Life (A) (M) (M)
• We Need to Talk About Kevin (M)
• Young Adult (M) (M)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• The Adventures of Tintin (M)
• Carnage (M) (M)
• A Dangerous Method (M) (M)
• The Descendents (M) (A)
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (M) (A) (M)
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (A)
• The Ides of March (M) (A)
• Moneyball (New)(S) (M) (M)
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (A)
• War Horse (M) (A) (M)