This may be the biggest year for the Academy Awards, as some major Hollywood players are going up against some fresh newcomers. Eyeballs everywhere will be glued to ABC on Sunday, February 27th at 8PM E/5PM P when the awards show goes live. But before that, we decided to do some picking of our own with the staff’s predictions for each award.

For a full list of the nominees, check out our previous article on the subject. Now, on to the predictions.

Best Picture

Shannon Hood-The Social Network. It had early and consistent momentum all year, and the Academy appears to be trying to shake up their stodgy image. This would be the perfect film to put their money where their mouth is.

Matt Raub – True Grit. Not only are the Coens a regular in the “I Have an Oscar” club, but this testament to classic western films is definitely one for record books, between its all-star cast and gritty (no pun intended) visual style, this one definitely deserves the golden statue.

Chris Ullrich – True Grit. Even though this was a pretty great year for movies and there are many excellent choices in this category, True Grit stands on its own as my pick. As an example of pure movie storytelling, this Coen Brothers masterpiece excels on every level and delivers a pure entertainment experience you will want to revisit many more times in the future.

Cortney Zamm – The Social Network. There’s a lot of great films in this category, some of them from my favorite directors and starring my favorite people. But the one that combined all of the essential elements of filmmaking into a truly gorgeous, compelling, and memorable film was The Social Network.

I Am Love opens with a flurry, as the expertly-trained uniformed staff of an haute-bourgeoisie Milanese manufacturing family prepare for the Christmas season birthday of the leonine patriarch. The family members arrive, each magnificently attired (this being Milan, after all), and the soup (soup playing a crucial part in this film) is ladled from the giant silver tureen.

The great patriarch is ill and soon to die, and in a moment straight out of Greek mythology or Shakespeare, announces to the assembled his choice of successor to the family’s fortune-making textile plants: his middle-aged son Tancredi, who already wears the polished respectability of a titan of industry. It is in Tancredi’s sophisticated, museum-like mansion that the party is taking place and his elegant wife Emma (played by the stunning and absolutely amazing Tilda Swinton, who also produced the film) who is responsible for the clockwork orchestrations of the household.

But there is more, a surprise. For there will be not one but two successors, not only Tancredi but also one of Tancredi and Emma’s three children, the delicate and highly emotional Edoardo.

The stage has been set, brilliantly. Let the drama begin.