The Oscars is the biggest day for movies in the entire year. The Academy, a group of people who have experience in the film industry who vote on the nominees and winners for each category, decide who is the best of the best in movies from the past year. Many famous actors and directors have won Oscars for their performances, direction, work in special effects and even the music you hear in the background of a movie. The 2015 Oscars will celebrate the year of 2014 and its stacked year in film. The nominees for Best Picture, Best Actor and Actress in a leading role, Best Animated Picture and Best Visual Effects are some of the most popular categories and here are some predictions for these categories.

Best Visual Effects is a category in which the nominees are usually summer blockbuster-type movies. Previous winners have been Star Wars, E.T, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Matrix, Spiderman 2 and the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. This year’s nominees are Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Interstellar and X-Men: Days Of Future Past and they were all big blockbuster movies with a lot of star-power, but this year’s award belongs to Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. The apes in the movie were created using performance capture. All of the apes in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes were created using performance capture and the artists creating these apes that look this realistic is fantastic and visually stunning on screen. Compared to the other movies, Apes has the most impressive visual effects and thats why Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes should win the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

Best Animated Feature is a category in which animated movies get the shine that they deserve and is dedicated to their brilliance. Past winners have been Toy Story 3, Up, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and Frozen. This year’s nominees are Big Hero 6, The Boxtrolls, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Song of the Sea and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Sadly, one of the biggest snubs in Oscar history goes to this category. That snub is the Lego Movie. A critically and fan loved movie was not nominated for Best Animated Feature and it will go down as one of the biggest snubs ever, but this year’s animation category is a two movie race between Big Hero 6 and How To Train Your Dragon 2. Both of the movies were just great movies and both had great visuals. It is definitely a close race between HTTYD2 and Big Hero 6, but HTTYD2 will pull away with the victory and the Oscar trophy.

Best Actress in a Leading Role is a category dedicated to the best performances by women from the past year. Past winners include Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) and Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook). This year’s nominees are Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Julianne Moore (Still Alice), Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and Reese Witherspoon (Wild). To say that all five of these women’s performances were amazing would be an understatement. They were all more than that, but the standout out of these five women is Julianne Moore in Still Alice. In Still Alice, Moore plays a woman with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and shows the struggle of having the disease. Her performance makes you believe she really has the tragic disease and it was arguably the best of her career. It is a really powerful performance and she should be the front-runner for the Oscar.

Best Actor in a Leading Role is a category dedicated to the performances of the men in this category. Past winners include Jamie Foxx (Ray), Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) and Denzel Washington (Training Day). This year’s nominees are Steve Carell (Foxcatcher), Bradley Cooper (American Sniper), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Michael Keaton (Birdman) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory Of Everything). This is a stacked category for the lead actor category. The two frontrunners would be Michael Keaton’s amazing performance in Birdman and Eddie Redmayne’s performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything. To a lot of people, this category this is a coin flip between the two. At the end of the day, the Oscar will go to Eddie Redmayne in The Theory Of Everything.

Best Picture is the category in which the Academy chooses the best film out of the nominees. Past winners include Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Gladiator, Forrest Gump and Rocky. This year’s nominees are Whiplash, American Sniper, Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything and Boyhood. The two front-runners seem to be Birdman and Boyhood. Birdman seemed to be the better film, plus at other award shows like the Producer Guild Awards chose Birdman as best motion picture. So the award for Best Picture goes to Birdman.

This year’s Oscars has a lot of hype behind it, especially with all of the talent that has been shown through this last year. The Oscars have launched many unknown actors into huge and successful careers and have even given more respect to those who have earned it throughout their acting career. This year’s Oscars should be a lot of fun and even have some surprises with who wins what award. The Oscars will be televised live on February 22nd at 7:30pm central time on ABC.