Tom Hanks...Is He the Big Winner?

With the Golden Globe nominations already out and The Academy Award nominations soon to come (on January 16th), it's clear that it's a tough race this year. 2013 provided a lot of real talent and new ways to express that talent with exciting films. Award season is my favorite time of the year. The nominations, the ceremonies, the dresses, the jokes...I simply love it all. The best part though it that award season spurs on actors and actresses and directors to be even better. Pushing the film industry to be better each and every year.

And although the nominations for The Academy Awards are not out yet, I have a pretty great suspicion of who will receive the life-changing phone calls. It could be a really special year. I am pretty sure that Tom Hanks will receive two of those phone calls. I am predicting that he will get nominated for Best Actor for Captain Phillips. Actually, I can say that the nomination for that is a sure thing. I also can say with quite some confidence that he has a really high chance of winning. Hanks is beloved by the members of the academy and his depiction of Captain Richard Philips was beyond amazing. I lost myself while watching him and forgot that he was even an actor. He embodied every emotion of that character with ease and grace that it tricked viewers into thinking they were watching a news broadcast. In addition, I have high hopes and an intuition that he will be nominated for Best Supporting Actor. His embodiment of Walt Disney was inspiring and I walked away awestruck. The film is fabulous but he is one of the key elements that makes it so impressive. To play such an iconic man as Disney is a feat in and of itself, but to succeed is something even greater. 

Tom Hanks could really walk away with golden statues. It would be quite the statement, but if anyone deserves it...it's Hanks. Eleven actors and actresses have received both nominations including Jessica Lange, Jamie Foxx, Julianne Moore, Al Pacino, Emma Thompson and Holly Hunter. However, no one has ever walked away with both awards. This could be the history-altering year and Hanks could be the man to change it. We shall see on March 2nd.