Oscar Race For 2014: 8 Picks

The 85^th Academy Awards are behind us, which means it’s time to start checking out what films will be in the Oscar race for the 86th ceremony. Below are eight possible contenders (in no particular order).

The Butler: Lee Daniels, the director of Precious teamed up with political scriptwriter Danny Strong (Game Change) to create a film about a White House Butler who served eight presidents during his tenure. Forest Whitaker will play the butler, and is joined in the cast by Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda and John Cusack.

August: Osage County: Starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Chris Cooper and Abigail Breslin, this film, based off of a Broadway show, is generating high expectations. Streep will play Violet Weston, a matriarch or a family reunited under painful circumstances. Roberts will play her daughter.

Wolf of Wall Street: While Leonardo Dicaprio’s The Great Gatsby project due out May 10 is getting massive amounts of press; it’s his film with Martin Scorsese, Wolf of Wall Street, that seems more likely to impress the Academy. Dicaprio will play a stockbroker in the period piece, who falls into a downward spiral complete with fraud and drugs. He’ll be flanked by actors Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, Jonah Hill and Kyle Chander.

Labor Day: Kate Winslet stars in this Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) directed film. She’ll play an agoraphobic mother of a young boy who must overcome her fears when an ex-con arrives on the scene. Tobey Maguire and Josh Brolin will also star in Labor Day.

Fruitvale: Fruitvale could be next year’s indie gem. Starring former Friday Night Lights star Michael B. Jordan, it follows 22-year-old Oscar Grant in his final days before being shot on New Years Day by Oakland police in 2009. It won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

The Dallas Buyers Club: The Dallas Buyers Club is the Matthew McConaughey vehicle that forced the always-buff movie star to shed the pounds. He plays Ron Woodroff, a man living with AIDS who refuses to accept his six-month life expectancy. Smuggling non-FDA approved medicine, he lives six years longer than his prognosis had suggested.

Diana: This Princess Diana biopic will star Naomi Watts in the lead, and depict the late mother of Princes William and Harry during the final two years of her life. It’ll show her fierce campaign against land mines, as well as give a look into her relationship with surgeon Dr. Hasnat Khan.

Saving Mr. Banks: The last two movies to win the Best Picture award at the Oscar’s have essentially been about Hollywood – The Artist and Argo, which makes this film about Walt Disney an obvious contender. Throughout the film Disney, played by Tom Hanks, is in talks with Mary Poppins author P.L Travels to allow him to turn her book into a film. It’ll be directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and star Emma Thomson as Travers.