The nominations for 85th Academy Awards were announced today and as always contained surprises with unexpected nominees as well as snubbed hopefuls. HSX offered NominOptions for the leading contenders in the top eight major categories. Let’s see how well HSX traders predicted this year’s crop of Oscar nominees.
There were 9 nominees for Best Picture this year: Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty. HSX traders correctly named 8 out of the top 9 vote-getters, missing only The Master over Amour.
The nominees for Best Director are Ang Lee for Life of Pi, Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild, David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook, Michael Haneke for Amour, Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. The shut out of Ben Affleck for Argo and Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty shocked everyone including HSX traders who chose them instead of Zeitlin and Haneke.
The nominees in the Best Actor category are Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook, Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln, Denzel Washington - Flight, Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables, and Joaquin Phoenix - The Master. HSX traders got 4 out of 5, choosing John Hawkes - The Sessions instead of Phoenix, who dissented against the whole awards process.
The nominees in the Best Actress category are Emmanuelle Riva – Amour, Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook, Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty, Naomi Watts – The Impossible and Quvenzhane Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild. HSX traders also hit 4 for 5, opting for Marion Cotillard – Rust and Bone over Wallis, who became the youngest nominee ever in this category.
The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are Alan Arkin – Argo, Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained, Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master, Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook and Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln. HSX traders once again were 4 out of 5, prefering Leonardo DiCaprio over his Django Unchained castmate Waltz.
The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are Amy Adams – The Master, Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables, Helen Hunt – The Sessions, Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook, Sally Field – Lincoln. Adams and Weaver surprised HSX traders, who collectively went with Maggie Smith – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Nicole Kidman – The Paperboy.
The nominees in the Best Adapted Screenplay category are Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook. HSX traders forecasted a perfect 5 out of 5.
The nominees in the Best Original Screenplay category are Amour, Django Unchained, Flight, Moonrise Kingdom and Zero Dark Thirty. HSX traders were hoping for Looper and The Master rather than Django Unchained and Flight.
AwardOptions for the Oscar nominees will begin trading on Friday at 9 am Pacific Time.