A vision of Oscar future

This year's Academy Awards air at 4 p.m. Sunday on ABC, and if online Oscar pundits are to be believed, many categories are still impossible to predict.

We'll try anyway.

In fact, let's go a step further. In addition to predicting who will win, the ol' Press crystal ball is revealing a few ceremony secrets.

Best Picture: "Lincoln" leads the field with 12 nominations, followed by "Life of Pi" with 11. Forget them. Ben Affleck's "Argo" will take the top prize - the movie has already taken every major prize of the season. Part of its success stems from Affleck's glaring omission in the Best Director category. The film has proudly worn the "underdog" badge for weeks now, so much so that no other nominee has gained a fraction of momentum.

Show Prediction: Seth MacFarlane will do "Family Guy" voices and almost everybody over the age of 25 will stare at the screen in complete bewilderment.

Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis in a landslide. Nobody touches his "Lincoln" performance.

Actress: A much tighter race. Most believe Jennifer Lawrence of "Silver Linings Playbook" to be the frontrunner, with Jessica Chastain of "Zero Dark Thirty" falling out of contention since the initial nominations announcement. Here's a hunch - Emmanuelle Riva, the 85-year-old star of little-seen "Amour" takes the statuette from the youthful nominees.

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway dreamed a dream of winning an Oscar for "Les Miserables," and it will happen.

Show Prediction: Hathaway will be a sincere and humble winner, but the speech will still be kind of annoying.

Supporting Actor: One of the toughest races to call. All the nominees are past winners, and a strong case could be made for any of them. It's been a while since Robert De Niro has been good in any movie though, so his "Silver Linings Playbook" performance will likely squeak by Tommy Lee Jones of "Lincoln."

Show Prediction: The producers will cut to grumpy face Tommy Lee Jones after an off-color MacFarlane joke at least six times during the show.

Director: No Affleck in the hunt means king of Hollywood Steven Spielberg probably takes the frontrunner position. That said, this is the category to reward "Life of Pi" by giving the prize to Ang Lee. Watch out for Michael Haneke of "Amour" and David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook." Tight category.

Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for "Django Unchained" just edges the "Zero Dark Thirty" script by Mark Boal.

Adapted Screenplay: Tony Kushner's "Lincoln" script deserves to win in a landslide. So why does it seem like the "Argo" script is going to steal it?

Show prediction: Adele gives a show-stopping musical performance. Tommy Lee Jones will remain grumpy.

Original Song: Adele for "Skyfall."

Original Score: "Life of Pi"

Cinematography: A two-way race between Claudio Miranda for "Life of Pi" and Roger Deakins for "Skyfall." Deakins is a national treasure with 10 nominations and zero wins. Time to end the streak!

Film Editing: The Best Picture winner usually claims the editing prize too, so "Argo."

Production Design: "Life of Pi"

Visual Effects: "Life of Pi." Come on, that tiger looked real.

Show Prediction: Producers will try some clever way to make these awards interesting. They will fail.

Sound Editing: "Skyfall"

Sound Mixing: "Les Miserables"

Show Prediction: For the 1,752nd time, someone will mention how the actors in "Les Miserables" sang live on set.

Costume Design: "Anna Karenina"

Makeup and Hair: "The Hobbit"

Animated Feature: Pixar's "Brave" has genuine competition from "Wreck-It Ralph" and "Frankenweenie." Hard to bet against the industry juggernaut, though.

Animated Short: "Adam and Dog"

Show Prediction: Some "Family Guy" character makes a "hilarious" appearance around the animation categories.

Foreign Language Film: "Amour" in a landslide.

Live Action Short: "Buzkashi Boys" because it sounds cool.

Documentary Feature: The weakest film of the bunch, "Searching for Sugar Man," has a lot of inexplicable support. The best documentary of the year, "The Queen of Versailles," wasn't even nominated.

Documentary Short: Random guess: "King's Point"

Show Prediction: Someone will say something political.

Ticket Stubs is sponsored by the Hayden Cinema Six Theater. Showtimes at www.HaydenCinema6.com. Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com