This Sunday is the 85th Annual Academy Awards, and to mark the occasion we asked the British public for their predictions on which films, actors and actresses will walk away with the coveted golden statuettes this year.
Some media commentators have declared that the race to win the Oscar for Best Picture is “wide open”, with a slew of strong contenders but no clear favourite.
Best Picture
Asked who they think will win, and the highest percentage (19%) of Brits believe the latest adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel ‘Les Misérables’, directed by Tom Hooper, will take home the evening's top prize.
Meanwhile, 8% of respondents think Steven Spielberg’s Abraham Lincoln biopic ‘Lincoln’, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as America’s 16th president, will be crowned the ultimate winner.
Running just behind in third place, 7% of Brits predict that 3D adventure drama 'Life of Pi', based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same name and directed by Ang Lee, will win the Oscar for Best Picture.
Best Actor
Perhaps unsurprisingly, 21% of Brits believe that British actor Daniel Day-Lewis will win the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in ‘Lincoln’.
In second place, 16% predict Aussie actor and X-Men alumnus Hugh Jackman will be crowned Best Actor his role as 19th Century French convict Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.
Way behind in third place, 8% of Brits believe veteran actor Denzel Washington will take home his third Academy Award for his turn as an airline pilot struggling with addiction in 'Flight'.
Best Actress
When it comes to the Best Actress category, which last year was won by Meryl Streep for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the ‘The Iron Lady’, most people (72%) say they don’t know who will win this year.
However, American actress Jessica Chastain and Australian Naomi Watts are tied for the actress most likely to take home the Oscar by 8% of the public, respectively. The former for her role as a CIA agent on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, and the latter for her portrayal of a mother whose family is vacationing in Thailand at the time of the 2004 tsunami that devastated the region.
Running just behind in second place is actress Jennifer Lawrence, who is predicted by 6% of the public to be the one who snatches the Best Actress Oscar for her role as an unemployed young widow in ‘The Silver Linings Playbook’.
Best Supporting Actor
Leading the pack amongst the British public in the Best Supporting Actor category, 16% think Tommy Lee Jones will take home his second Academy Award for his role as the radical Republican congressional leader Thaddeus Stevens in ‘Lincoln’.
In second place is Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, who plays bounty hunter Dr King Schultz in ‘Django Unchained’, and in the third spot is two-time Oscar winner Robert de Niro, who plays Bradley Cooper’s gambling father in ‘Silver Linings Playbook’.
Best Supporting Actress
Finally, over a quarter (28%) of Brits believe Anne Hathaway will win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for taking on the role of Fantine, the factory worker turned prostitute in Les Misérables.
Way behind in second place is Sally Field, the woman who famously declared “you like me, right now, you like me!” when accepting her second Oscar for 1984’s ‘Places in the Heart’, nominated this year for her role as Mary Todd Lincoln in ‘Lincoln’.
