Is it ever too early to start trying to predict what films will be nominated for Oscars next year?

In a word … yes.

After all, it’s only March.  Grand Budapest Hotel has just now been released in New York and Los Angeles.  Whiplash and Boyhood were acclaimed at Sundance.  But otherwise, this is the time of year when the studios release films like The Legend of Hercules and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. 

Yes, it’s way too early and, quite frankly, a bit silly to try to predict anything right now.

But, a lot of us are still going to try.

Below you can find my way too early predictions for the 2015 Oscar nominations.  Needless to say, these are blind guesses and should not be taken too seriously.

Some may notice that three films that are very popular with other award watchers are not listed on my list of best picture predictions.  I have not listed Grand Budapest Hotel because the Academy, in the past, has not exactly been receptive to the films of Wes Anderson.  As for David Fincher’s Gone Girl, I’m predicting it will have more in common with his rehash of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo than The Social Network.  Finally, I’m looking forward to seeing Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice but I think the material will be too quirky for the Academy.

Best Picture

Birdman

Boyhood

Foxcatcher

Get On Up

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Unbroken

Whiplash

Wild

Best Director

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman

Angelina Jolie for Unbroken

Richard Linklater for Boyhood

Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game

Jean-Marc Vallee for Wild

Best Actor

Chadwick Boseman in Get On Up

Steve Carell in Foxcatcher

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game

Brendan Gleeson in Calvary

Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner

Best Actress

Amy Adams in Big Eyes

Jessica Chastain in A Most Violent Year

Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl

Emma Stone in Magic in the Moonlight

Reese Whitherspoon in Wild

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Duvall in The Judge

Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation

Mark Ruffalo in Foxcatcher

J.K. Simmons in Whiplash

Christopher Walken in Jersey Boys

Best Supporting Actress

Viola Davis in Get On Up

Amy Ryan in Birdman

Kristen Scott-Thomas in Suite Francaise

Meryl Streep in Suffragette

Jacki Weaver in Magic in the Moonlight

Those are my predictions for now.  Come April, I’ll sit down and make (and post) another collection of blind guesses.  If nothing else, these way too early predictions will give everyone something to laugh about when, next year, the actual Oscar nominations are announced.

Agree?  Disagree?  Let me know in the comments.