Fancy a flutter on the films?
The Academy Awards, the jewel in the crown of the Hollywood awards season, roll around on Sunday 2nd March and, here at JOE HQ, we cannot wait. The awesome opening performances, the hilarious, cut-off-mid-sentence speeches, the impossibly-glamorous actresses falling over as they attempt to pick up their award - the Oscars has it all...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDU7zLAd2-U
This year's ceremony will be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres and, although a lot of the categories already have very clear favourites as to who is going to walk away with the big gongs, that doesn't take away from the fact that there's a fun, friendly flutter to be had. Below, JOE has picked out our own Oscar hopefuls for 2014, with all of the current odds provided by
Ladbrokes.
Believe us, these choices are absolutely, definitely, guaranteed to win you a LOT of money.*
*Do not believe us. These choices are in no way absolutely, definitely, guaranteed to win you a LOT of money.
We've also thrown in a couple of awesome accumulators at the very end which have the potential to bag you a handsome haul. And don't worry JOE readers, we're not trying to AMERICAN HUSTLE you...
We hid a shneaky Oscar reference in that previous sentence, see if you can spot it.
Best Picture
The favourite: 12 Years A Slave 2/7
JOE's outside bet: Dallas Buyers Club 40/1
Best Actor in a Leading Role
The favourite: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) 1/6
JOE's outside bet: Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) 12/1
Best Actress in a Leading Role
The favourite: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) 1/25
JOE's outside bet: Judi Dench (Philomena) 33/1
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
The favourite: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) 1/20
JOE's outside bet: Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) 16/1
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
There's no point in picking anyone other than one of these two for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role gong, but this is definitely one of the most appealing markets with two live options available.
As film fans we'd love to see Nyong'o win for her stunning performance in 12 Years A Slave, but Lawrence is most certainly the Academy darling and so, to paraphrase one of her most famous characters, may the odds be ever in your favour...
The favourite: Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) 4/6
JOE's outside bet: Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle) 5/4
Best Directing
The favourite: Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) 1/25
JOE's outside bet: Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) 12/1
Best Animated Feature
The favourite: Frozen 1/50
JOE's outside bet: The Croods 50/1
Best Adapted Screenplay
The favourite: 12 Years a Slave (John Ridley) 1/10
JOE's outside bet: Philomena (Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope) 7/1
Best Original Screenplay
The favourite: Her (Spike Jonze) 4/6
JOE's outside bet: Dallas Buyers Club (Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack) 20/1
Technical awards
No contest here unfortunately. Gravity will win. ALL of them.
JOE's Awesome Accumulators
12 Years A Slave to win Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay - just under 400/1. Yep, That's a spicy one.
If you go with JOE's outsiders for Best Original Screenplay (Dallas Buyers Club - 20/1) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Philomena - 7/1) - just about 167/1. It's a long shot but hey, if you win, don't forget who tipped you off.
The Oscars ceremony will be broadcast live on the Sky Oscars channel on Sunday 11.30pm - 4.30am and highlights will be shown on RTÉ 2 on Monday 3rd March at 9pm.
