The preliminary rounds of awards are officially over. The Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, and the Emmys are all over and done with and now the king of movie award shows approaches at blindingly fast speed.

The final round is here and the contestants are announced; some obvious nominees and many questionable decisions have been made.

First and foremost here are the five major categories and their nominees:

Best Picture: There are nine nominees in this category just as there were last year; all though this year seems to be a much more difficult decision as nearly all the nominees are drastically different films — all loved by many for different reasons.

•  American Hustle
• Gravity
• 12 Years a Slave
• Her
• Nebraska
• Captain Phillips
• The Wolf of Wall Street
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Philomena

Best Actor: There are an awful lot of surprises this year. We have many actors and actresses who were wrongly left out like Tom Hanks  and Emma Thompson who were both splendid in Saving Mr. Banks this year, and thespians in their first ever film roles being nominated for Oscars like Barkhad Adbi (Captain Phillips) and Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave).

• Christian Bale (American Hustle)
• Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
• Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
• Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
• Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

Best Actress:

• Amy Adams (American Hustle)
• Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
• Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
• Judi Dench (Philomena)
• Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:

• Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)
• Bradley Cooper( American Hustle)
• Barkhad Adbi (Captain Phillips)
• Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
• Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:

• Julia Andrews (August: Osage County)
• Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
• Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)
• June Squibb (Nebraska)
• Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

Now that the main categories are listed and out of the way let’s discuss and analyze some of the more “special” choices in the show.

Let’s start off with the acting categories and all the shocking nominations (or lack thereof) Tom Hanks was not only snubbed for his role as Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks; but he also did not get the Oscar nomination many believe he deserves for his starring role as Captain Phillips, which was already nominated for Best Picture.

All though Tom Hanks did great in Captain Phillips he wasn’t the carrying acting force of this movie as Barkhad Adbi, who actually was nominated, shared many scenes with Hanks and they both did phenomenal. However real acting talent shines when a star carries a movie on their shoulders alone; which is exactly what Joaquin Phoenix in Her and Robert Redford did in All is Lost. Yet neither of these great actors are nominees, (come on Jonah Hill is great and all but now he even has more nominations then Redford) where Christian Bale had an amazing supporting cast with him in American Hustle neither of these two actors were that lucky both of their films were left in their hands and their emotions with few signs of outer assistance.

This is also the year Leonardo DiCaprio might win his first Oscar for The Wolf of Wall Street as he has already won a golden globe, yet he wasn’t even nominated during the Screen Actors Guild awards so it’s obvious there are mixed feelings and he has tough competition.

Where as I know Dialogue isn’t the only form of acting but when you’re entire role in a movie is to be nearly all CGI and grunt with a couple of quick flashes of dialogue; I don’t think you deserve an academy award or even be nominated for one.  But that is exactly what happened with Sandra Bullock in Gravity. Instead of giving, at least, a nod to Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha) and/or Julie Delpy(Before Midnight)  for two hours of just wonderful acting and many lines of dialogue in their respective films: Bullock gets the nomination.

And for the more Aesthetic properties of filmmaking, what was the academy thinking? The Lone Ranger is considered one of the messiest and worse movies of 2013; yet it is up for an Oscar for visual effects. While, Guillermo Del Toro who used nearly Pacific Rim’s entire budget on its visuals and it being a much more well-received critical and fan success: Is left in the dirt with many other low budget films in the number one movie award show of the year.