You can have your Golden Globes and your BAFTAs and everything else, but when it comes to awards season, the big daddy is the Academy Awards, and this Sunday sees the winners finally being named in what has got to be the closest and most quality filled list of nominees in some time.

Every year there is also one movie that seems like a dead cert to sweep the board, but aside from Gravity nabbing ALL of the technical awards, most of the rest of the categories seem wide open to us.

But that’s not going to stop us from having an educated guess at each of them, not to mention a big old gloat / moan on Monday morning when our favorites are / aren’t picked.

Now, on with the premonitions!

BEST ACTOR

Who’ve We Got? Christian Bale for American Hustle. Bruce Dern for Nebraska. Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf Of Wall Street. Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years A Slave. Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club.

Any one of these could potentially win, such was the high standard this year. And that’s not even to mention the likes of Tom Hanks, Oscar Isaac and Joaquin Phoenix who would’ve all deserved an equal standing in this category.

Who Should Win? We can rule Bale and Dern out as long shots. DiCaprio could do a "Scorsese for The Departed" and end up winning a cumulative award. But it should be between Ejiofor and McConaughey, and we’re putting our money on the latter, who completely transformed himself forthe role.

Who Will Win? Again, if it goes to either of Ejiofor or McConaughey, we wouldn’t complain or be surprised. We think the Academy will end up agreeing with us for McConaughey, but more due to his recent career 180.

BEST ACTRESS

Who’ve We Got? Amy Adams for American Hustle. Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine. Sandra Bullock for Gravity. Judi Dench for Philomena. Meryl Streep for August: Osage County.

It’s amusing to us to see Streep’s name on the list and know, much an almost absolute certainty, that she’s NOT going to win. Amusing, and weird.

Who Should Win? We said it the second we saw the movie way back in September last year, and nothing since then has come close to her performance. Cate Blanchett is this year’s only dead cert winner, and if she doesn’t win, it’ll be the biggest upset of the night.

Who Will Win? The Academy will surely agree with us, as even though Bullock was put through the physical wringer, and Adams rocked a good cleavage, nothing could compete with Blanchett’s spiralling out breakdown.

BEST DIRECTOR

Who’ve We Got? David O’Russell for American Hustle. Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity. Alexander Payne for Nebraska. Steve McQueen for 12 Years A Slave. Martin Scorsese for The Wolf Of Wall Street.

Truth be told, Payne shouldn’t really be here, not when the likes of Spike Jonze, Paul Greengrass and The Coen Brothers did much better work. Awh well…

Who Should Win? For the technical aspect alone, it’s got to be Cuaron. Pushing the envelope of cinema, and making a block-buster in the process that didn’t cost James Cameron money, AND universally adored. Win-win-win.

Who Will Win? As much as the Academy love to reward 'Important But Sad' Movies (i.e. 12 Years A Slave), what they love even more is a movie that critics love AND makes a butt-load of money (i.e. Gravity).

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Who’ve We Got? Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips. Bradley Cooper for American Hustle. Michael Fassbender for 12 Years A Slave. Jonah Hill for The Wolf Of Wall Street. Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club.

If you went back ten… No, even FIVE years, and showed someone this list, they’d laugh in your face. 'Who? The guy from Superbad? And the guy from The Hangover? And that long haired singer guy? Is this some kind of joke?'

Who Should Win? Despite Abdi’s recent BAFTA win, this really should just come down to either Fassbender and Leto. And as much as we want to support the Irish contingent, we think that Leto deserves it more.

Who Will Win? There is a chance that the Academy will reward Fassbender as way of apology for them completely overlooking his role in Shame, but we think that Leto is still the sure-fire winner here. And if he collects the award in drag, then he’ll be winner of everything in life, ever.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Who’ve We Got? Sally Hawkins for Blue Jasmine. Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle. Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years A Slave. Julia Roberts for August: Osage County. June Squibb for Nebraska.

A fairly solid list, although a very tough one to call the winner for. Will the Academy go for the gumption of the newbies or the experience of the oldies?

Who Should Win? We would love to see Sally Hawkins get some love for her underplayed, subtle performance in Blue Jasmine, but we just don’t see that happening. So we’re gonna go with Lupita Nyong’o for her heartbreaking performance.

Who Will Win? Everyone loves Jennifer Lawrence, and we imagine that the Academy want to stay hip with the kids, and will shove her on stage with yet another award, so she’ll say something adorably dorky for us to fall in love with her all over again.

BEST FILM

Who’ve We Got? American Hustle. Captain Phillips. Dallas Buyers Club. Gravity. Her. Nebraska. Philomena. 12 Years A Slave. The Wolf Of Wall Street.

Again, a solid list, but we can probably hack a few of the unlikelies off straight away, and we’re really only down to three most likely winners…

Who Should Win? … none of which are the movie that we would like to see win: Her. Our favorite film of the lot is probably a little too forward-thinking for the Academy, and they seem intent on one of the following to leave with the little bald gold man…

Who Will Win? Gravity, American Hustle or 12 Years A Slave. They’ve been winning all of the other awards, so if it’s anything but one of those three, it’ll be a major surprise. Despite the Academy’s big boner for the sads, as well as attention to detail when it comes to 1970 wigs, we’re holding out hope that they award Gravity the top prize.

But then what do we know? This is the same group that gave the prize to Shakespeare In Love instead of Saving Private Ryan, and Crash instead of Brokeback Mountain, so really ANYTHING GOES!

Be sure to check in with the entertainment.ie Facebook and Twitter feed this Sunday night / Monday morning, as we’ll be live-blogging the event!

And if you're thinking of heading to the west coast of the good aul' US of A for next years ceremony (we can dream) then our pals at American Holidays are running a cool competition over yonder where you can win €250 clams towards your trip.