The Best Picture category isn't the only thing that bulked up.

What is it about the Academy Awards? Intellectually, it's hard to muster up that much enthusiasm about who "wore it best" (Ang Lee) or how modest Katniss will be in her acceptance speech, hopefully avoiding a First Wives' Club reference that sounded like she was hating on Meryl Streep this time. And yet ... we still feel compelled to watch. Maybe it's because secretly, deep down, we still find it fascinating that the guy who does the voice of Stewie looks like the host of a reality game show about finding true love by having a dance-off on a stripper pole.

Or maybe it's because we're just suckers, who deep down believe that Beasts of the Southern Wild might still possibly have a chance against Argo or Lincoln.

Come join us, will you, on this the most magical of evenings for producers, people who are married to movie stars, and dress designers? We'll be hosting a live chat below. Just click the big countdown button and you're all set. Got it?

Great.

This year we're making our predictions in order of the film and/or celebrity, not the award. That's because this time ... it's personal. No, seriously: between Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck being iced out of Best Director, the Weinstein Bros. not having a snowball's chance in hell of scoring a big win and the fact that we're practically giving an award to Anne Hathaway just to make her stop sing-crying, there's going to be a lot of sore losers tonight. But don't worry; we're using a time-tested formula for predicting the bitter ceremonies, including taking all of the guesses on Twitter and averaging them against Nate Silver's predictions. Then we throw those out the window and  get ourselves angry over Lincoln’s inevitable windfall of awards that should be going to that movie that had all those great New Yorker articles written about it and stars a 9-year-old who wasn't even an actress when she started the film, which is about 50 percent more method than Daniel Day-Lewis's decision to become an Italian cobbler every time he's taking a hiatus from Hollywood.

So enjoy, and don't forget to tune into our live chat on the Oscars, starting at 7 p.m.!

2013 Golden Globes, Bill Murray

If you are too busy watching the Australian cycling thing and can't understand what the hell is going on with Twitter (honestly, we don't know who you follow, but no one on our feed actually bothers naming the winners of these things), here are the latest updates for the 2013 Golden Globe Awards.

Best Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER: Argo
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Best Motion Picture, Drama
WINNER:

Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Les Mis

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Hugh Jackman, Les Mis

Best TV Series, Comedy or Musical
WINNER: GIRLS

Best Director
WINNER: Ben Affleck, Argo

Cecil B. DeMille's Lifetime Achievement Award/Freestyle Portion of Evening
WINNER: Jodie Foster

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Lena Dunham, Girls

Best Animated Feature Film
WINNER: Brave

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama
WINNER: Claire Danes, Homeland

Best Foreign Film
WINNER: Amour

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical
WINNER: Don Cheadle, House of Lies

Best Screenplay
WINNER: Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
WINNER: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Ed Harris, Game Change

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Kevin Costner, Hatfields & McCoys
(RUNNER-UP: Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Julianne Moore - Game Change

Best Television Series - Drama
WINNER: Homeland

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
WINNER: Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained

Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series
WINNER: Maggie Smith - Downton Abbey

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
WINNER: Damien Lewis - Homeland

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
WINNER: Game Change

Best Original Song
WINNER: "Skyfall," Adele

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
WINNER: Life of Pi

Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
WINNER: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Lining Playbook (Also, best speech? Y/N?)

Lincoln leads the pack for the Oscars with 12 nominations

There are a lot firsts in the nominations for the 85th annual Academy Award nominations. They include the youngest AND oldest Best Actress nominees (Emmanuelle Riva, 85, and Quvenzhané Wallis, 9), no trace of former dream team member Ben Affleck, and the first snub for Kathryn Bigelow.

On the other hand, there is no way Anne Hathaway is NOT singing this year, so get ready for some Franco-style flashbacks. And with 12 nominations for Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis will (unsurprisingly) definitely be going home with something gold this year.

A partial list below:

BEST PICTURE

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Amour
Django Unchained
Argo

DIRECTOR

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Michael Haneke, Amour
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

ACTRESS

Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

ACTOR

Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln
Denzel Washington, Flight
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Amy Adams, The Master

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook
Alan Arkin, Argo
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Flight
Zero Dark Thirty
Django
Amour
Moonrise Kingdom

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Amour (Austria)
No (Chile)
Rebelle (War Witch) (Netherlands)
A Royal Affair (Denmark)
Kon-Tiki (Norway)

ANIMATED FEATURE

Frankenweenie
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck It Ralph
ParaNorman
Brave

ORIGINAL SONG

"Before My Time" - Chasing Ice
"Pi's Lullabye" - Life of Pi
"Suddenly" - Les Misérables
"Everybody Needs a Best Friend" - Ted
"Skyfall" - Skyfall

Huppert.

It’s always reassuring to see a nutty director go straight. Austria’s Michael Haneke is famous for his lurid, violent and thoroughly sick exercises in torture and sexual depravity. Wait a sec. Did I say famous? Only to the occasional film festival audience. The public has avoided him like a dose of swine flu. Who sat through a pair of homicidal maniacs slicing and dicing up a family in their summer vacation home on a deserted lake in Funny Games, a film he loved so much he made it twice? Or the sight of Isabelle Huppert in La Pianiste, making love to her mother before slicing off her own genitals with a razor blade? No, I’m afraid Mr. Haneke’s career has thus far existed only in the “asylum home movies” department.

All of that is about to change. Amour has set the critics drooling, this time for the right reasons. Beautifully acted, sensitively written and uncommonly refined, this delicate portrait of an elderly couple struggling with fate, mortality and immortal devotion breathes clarity and passion into the verboten subject of old age without the usual attendant sentimental soap opera clichés. This is due, in a large part, to the vibrant talents of two beloved veterans of classic French cinema—Jean-Louis Trintignant (memorable in Bertolucci’s The Conformist,among others) and the incandescent Emmanuelle Riva (of Resnais’s Hiroshima, mon amour). Probably neither of them ever thought they would live to see the day when their hair was gone and the apple wouldn’t bite. I’m so glad they hung in there. They’re worth waiting for.

They play Anne and Georges, a pair of octogenarian musicians who have been married for decades, their careers largely behind them but their future together in old age cloudless and optimistic. One night, they return home from a concert to find their apartment robbed and their privacy invaded. Anne is so unnerved by the intrusion that the next morning she suffers a small stroke that turns out to be the beginning of a physical and mental decline. Paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, she succumbs to her illness while Georges attempts to care for her at home. Each day presents a new challenge, as they deal with the evolution of senior surrender—immobility, dementia, incontinence. But no matter what cards they are dealt by the devils who nurse our universe, they cling to a love that might even resist death. The daily events in their lives are dramatized indirectly, not in bold strokes. The details of everything that defines them—from the furnishings that make their apartment as familiar as an old sweater to their passive relationship with their daughter (Haneke alumna Isabelle Huppert, in a guest appearance without razor blades)—carry out the director’s theme: that life is not about the big issues, but the sum total of the little things, like what we saved in the attic and the brand of cereal we ate for breakfast. The scenes, like the performances, are meted out quietly, in small, languid sips. Mr. Haneke’s screenplay, like his controlled direction, is lucid, without obvious overstatement. The performances are a miracle, as much about the aging of the two stars as the characters they play. Ms. Riva and Mr. Trintignant are fearless, hiding nothing from the camera. It’s a triumph of subtlety one doesn’t often see within today’s fast pace. As Anne slips sadly away, her private world turns intimate and remote. But love remains, even in the final resolution.

Old age affects us all, but at the movies it’s a subject that defies commercial success. So I have doubts about the box office future of Amour, but no reservations about its compassion and artistry. Even if it moves you to tears, the intelligence and humanity you will experience are worth the emotional stress. That doesn’t mean I want to see a lot of films about Alzheimer’s or that I will even like Michael Haneke’s next film. But don’t let Amour join the legion of “Best Films You Never Saw.” I urge you to share its sweetness and wisdom, and learn something.

rreed@observer.com

AMOUR

Running Time 127 minutes

Written and Directed by Michael Haneke

Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert

Michael Haneke (Getty Images)

We try to make a point of never missing a Palme d’Or-winning film out of Cannes—we’re still confused by Terrence Malick’s dinosaurs from last year. And after seeing the most recent winner, Amour, at the New York Film Festival, we’re looking forward to meeting its director, Michael Haneke. Though the film has been deemed deeply distressing (as would be expected from a story of love in old age and declining health), the celebration at the home of gallerist Nathan Bernstein and documentarian Katharina Otto-Bernstein is all in good fun. Fellow guests include directors Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) and Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale), contemporaries of Mr. Haneke, albeit less grim in their practice. We’ll let our hair down at the party, but if the Austrian suggests any “funny games,” we’re beelining for the door.

Upper East Side, invitation only.

Brad Pitt in 'Killing Them Softly'

Here comes the sun. All week, the Cannes Film Festival has been drenched with relentless rain, billowing wind and a sweater-worthy chill—plus a dearth of high-wattage stars, ever since Bill Murray and his Moonrise Kingdom crew left after opening night. But all that changed this morning as the clouds parted in the Mediterranean skies and Brad Pitt popped up onscreen at the 8:30am screening of Killing Them Softly.

Andrew Dominik’s follow-up to The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (and his second collaboration with Pitt as both star and producer) is a capitalist screed disguised as a stylish crime thriller, set during the presidential election of 2008 in post-Katrina New Orleans and rife with scruffy crooks feverish for their cut of the pie—as long as they can get it wholesale. “Can we fly him coach?” asks one character when Pitt’s smooth criminal Jackie Coogan insists that another hit man be brought in. Funny in surprising spurts when it’s not waxing a cool sheen of menace, and larded with unexpectedly florid conversation, Killing Them Softly is a slow-burn rumination on excess, desperation, entitlement and old-fashioned free market self-interest.

“In some ways, the crime film is the most honest American film,” said the Australian director at a press conference after the film’s world premiere. “Crime films are always about capitalism. It's the one genre where it's perfectly acceptable for all the characters to be motivated only by a desire for money.”

One Italian journalist was concerned with the violence in the film (it’s sudden, highly graphic and, in one scene, shockingly gorgeous), and asked Pitt whether it was appropriate, especially since he and Angelina Jolie have six children. “I would have a harder time playing, like, a racist,” said Pitt. “It would be much more unsettling for me than being a guy who shoots another guy in the face.” For him as a producer, too, violence per se was far less important than the movie’s larger themes. “We're looking for stories that say something about our time and who we are,” he said.  The economy-obsessed gangster flick aptly opens stateside September 21, right in the eye of the Obama-Romney hurricane.

Also coming to the U.S. this fall is the toast of Cannes, Michael Haneke’s Amour (Love), a devastating, enthralling and deeply tender look at two married octogenarians and how their mutual devotion affects the end of their lives together. Gallic screen legends Jean-Paul Triningnant (The Conformist, Z) and Emmanuelle Riva (Hiroshima, Mon Amour) are riveting in this two-hander which takes place almost entirely in a stately Paris apartment (based on Haneke’s own parents’ apartment in Vienna and meticulously re-created on a French sound stage). When Riva becomes ill, it falls to Trintignant to take care of her, even as the severe strain of tending to such emotional, physical and mental decay becomes almost too much to bear. Haneke, the rigorously intellectual director behind such art house classics as The Piano Teacher and Caché, is, as usual, unflinching and austere. But instead of forcing the audience to keep their distance, his approach actually allows them to get closer by stripping away the insincere gloss of melodrama that lesser directors would cling to like a crutch.

Despite the fact that he routinely addresses dark subject matter—his previous film, the Palme d’Or winner The White Ribbon, examined the childhood anxieties of the Nazi generation—Haneke doesn’t think he’s a pessimist. “Every artist is an optimist, because otherwise, they wouldn’t be motivated to try and raise questions and communicate with their audience,” he said to the international press today. “If I were a pessimist, then I’d simply make entertaining films because I’d think that people aren’t intelligent enough to deal with questions like these.”

Oscar handicappers are already calling Amour the shoo-in for Best Foreign-Language Film. But for Riva, the film serves as an apt bookend to her career. In 1959, she came to Cannes with Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima, Mon Amour; and now, 53 years later, they are both back in Cannes (Resnais is premiering his reputed swan song, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.). “Hiroshima, Mon Amour dealt with an impossible love,” she said during an interview at the Hotel Majestic. “Whereas Amour is about a very possible love—so possible, in fact, that it lasts until the very end.”