Best Picture:

“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

The 2011 best picture winner “The Artist” was a silent, black-and-white film.

If the Oscar can go to a movie that unique, it can certainly go to a movie as quirky as “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” The movie’s storyline – a hotel concierge who is framed in the murder of his significantly older lover who left him a valuable painting in her will, uses tools hidden in cakes to break out of jail (and I’ll stop right there so I don’t spoil the film) – is as unique as they come.

Best Actor:

Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”

Last year, Mr. “Alright, Alright, Alright,” Matthew McConaughey lost 38 pounds to play the role of AIDS patient Ron Woodroof in “Dallas Buyers Club.” McConaughey went from rom–com star to an Academy Award winner for best actor for his role as Woodroof.

Similarly to McConaughey, Bradley Cooper also went through extreme physical change to portray his character. Instead of dropping weight, however, Cooper packed it on, gaining 40 pounds to play the role of Chris Kyle in “American Sniper.”

Cooper has gone from “Hangover” star to a soon–to–be winner of an Academy Award for best actor.

Cooper was absolutely fantastic in “American Sniper” as he did an amazing job capturing the impact war has on those who are brave enough to defend the United States.

Best Actress:

Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”

Since 2000, over half of  the best actress winners have gone to an actress who portrays a real person.

Assuming this year’s winner continues the trend, then the front runners are Felicity Jones and Reese Witherspoon.

Jones plays Jane Wilde Hawking, the ex-wife of physicist Stephen Hawking, in “The Theory of Everything,” and Witherspoon plays Cheryl Strayed, a woman who hiked over a thousand miles following a divorce and the death of her mother in “Wild.”

However, the determining factor for who will win best actress is based on a statistic from the BBC stating 14 percent of best actress winners play a character with a mental illness.

Therefore, I believe that Witherspoon will win since her character battles depression.

Best Animated Feature:

“How To Train Your Dragon 2”

Everything is not awesome. “The Lego Movie” didn’t get nominated for best animated feature, and yet it was undoubtedly the best animated film of the year.

Any film with Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson and Chris Pratt that ends with a final scene as tear-jerking as “The Lego Movie” deserves to win 500 Oscars.

With all of that said, since I have to pick a movie to win, I’ll go with the Golden Globe winning film “How To Train Your Dragon 2.”