"Usually there are three or four films that are certain to be nominated for best picture, and then you guess what films will fill the other slots. This year, there are at least 15 films that deserve a best picture nomination."
Those films also include Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, the Walt Disney Mary Poppins tale Saving Mr Banks, and at least three movies based on real events - Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club and Stephen Frears' new movie Philomena.
Blanchett is tipped as a frontrunner for Allen's film about a troubled New York socialite, while Sandra Bullock impressed both critics and filmgoers as an astronaut stranded in space with George Clooney in Gravity.
Emma Thompson captivated as Mary Poppins writer P.L. Travers against Hanks' Walt Disney, and fellow British veteran Dame Judi Dench could be nominated for the title role in Philomena, about a woman seeking her adult son lost after she was forced into a convent as a child.
For drama, Ejiofor is widely tipped for 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen's drama about a man sold into slavery in 19th-century America, while Matthew McConaughey has won plaudits for Dallas Buyers Club, for which he lost 13.5kg to play a rodeo hustler diagnosed with HIV in the 1980s. Hollywood veteran Redford could also get a shot at awards gold for his solo performance in All Is Lost, about a shipwrecked sailor.
On the small screen, best drama series nominees are likely to include cult series Breaking Bad and political drama House of Cards, while Girls and Modern Family are expected to be shortlisted for best comedy.
Elisabeth Moss and Holly Hunter from Jane Campion's Top of the Lake were both nominated for best actress in a TV drama in the Screen Actors Guild announcement yesterday and it is possible the New Zealand-shot production may figure in the 71st annual Golden Globes to be held on January 12 in Beverly Hills.
- AAP