The 2014 Academy Awards nominations were announced overnight. The good news is our Cate Blanchett has been nominated as best lead actress as expected. She’s the hot favourite after winning the Golden Globe earlier this week. She’s up against the delightful Sandra Bullock, the evergreen Meryl Streep and Judi Dench and the ‘am I in every movie’ Amy Adams. Cate Blanchett is hot favourite for good reason. Her performance in Blue Jasmine DVD was simply the best acting performance of the year, male or female. Blue Jasmine is a New DVD Release now available at DVDLand.

The most important Best Picture nominations didn’t include many surprises after this week’s Golden Globes. Gravity starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney is my personal favourite. You can’t go wrong with putting those two in space. Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks is also an outstanding movie but at long odds and will become a modern day classic with or without the Best Picture award. Dallas Buyers Club would have been a bit of a surprise prior to the Golden Globes but the inconsistent Matthew McConaughey delivers a great performance in this low budget movie. Leonardo DiCaprio fans will be rooting for The Wolf Of Wall Street and similarly Brad Pitt fans shouting for 12 Years A Slave. The nominations are rounded out with Nebraska, Philomena and the movie Her adding fuel to the argument why these movies have been nommed to get the total to 9. These 3 are good movies but Best Picture nomination worthy?

Best Actor nominations are an open field, almost any of them could win. Christian Bale for American Hustle, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf Of Wall Street and Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club all delivered near-perfect performances, all deserving of the gong. Bruce Dern for Nebraska is a dark horse and firming from long odds to heading to favourite territory is Chiwetel Ejofor for 12 Years A Slave. This movie is a journey that’s worth taking.

On a lighter note I like to watch the best Animated Feature Film category or as we like to call it Disney DVD versus the rest. Disney’s Frozen is pretty much guaranteed to win as well it should. Probably the best Disney animated movies since Cars. It’s up against the hilarious Despicable Me 2, The Croods, The Wind Rises and Ernest & Celestine.

The Oscars are on 2 March and will be hosted by the new-funnier-Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres (that was a little harsh). But all that matters is we get behind our Cate and barrack her home.