The Buzzed-About Films Destined For The 85th Oscars

This year’s Oscars may have left some unhappy, but the milk has already spilled, so grab a tissue and get ready for 2013’s Oscar hopefuls.

1. Lincoln. Last year's The Conspirators marketed themselves around the 16th U.S. president, but it was actually a movie about his assassins and the death penalty. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter will be the first taste of Seth Grahame-Smith’s mash-up genre on film. But when will someone actually make a film about Lincoln that is actually about Lincoln? Enter the power-house awards duo of Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis. Could you pick a better team? Get ready for Oscar gold.

2. Kathryn Bigelow's still-untitled bin Laden movie. The Hurt Locker director's follow-up to her 2009 Best Picture winner, which is centered around the killing of Osama bin Laden, has already signed lots of young and talented Hollywood stars, including The Help's Jessica Chastain. That girl is meant for the Oscars.

3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Peter Jackson, the one ring, and Bagginses. Enough said.

4. Won't Back Down. If her natural hair and green dress didn't impress you, then just wait until you see Viola Davis star as a teacher trying to transform an inner-city school in Pittsburgh. Could this be the next Dangerous Minds?

5. The Great Gatsby. Baz Luhrman has arguably made only one bad film, Australia, which, even with a crappy narrative, is the second-highest grossing Austrailian movie of all time. So with the great American novel as its source material, The Great Gatsby is bound to be epic — especially since it stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Shame’s Carey Mulligan.

—MIJON ZULU