After a year of blockbuster hits, the 2014 awards season is a great way for fans to watch their favorite movies battle it out to see which reigns supreme.

Cheering on their favorite movies to win or complaining about snubs during awards season can be the highlight of any movie viewer.

There are many shows such as The Golden Globes, The PGAs, The DGAs and The SAG Awards, and they all lead up to the final and most prestigious: The Academy Awards.

These award shows can be used to predict which films will win at The Academy Awards even though they may not as covered as much as the Oscars.

This year The Academy Award nominations for best motion picture are Gravity, American Hustle, 12 Years a Slave, Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Her, Nebraska, Philomena and The Wolf of Wall Street.

American Hustle and Gravity lead with 10 nominations each, while 12 Years a Slave follows close behind with nine nominations.  American Hustle is the only movie with nominations in all four acting categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. These three films seem to be the frontrunners in this contest.

The awards chosen by professionals in film are generally more accurate when compared to publicly voted awards, which is why they are sometimes considered as a precedent for The Oscars. This is especially true for the biggest awards of the night: Best Picture

American Hustle won for Best Comedy Motion Picture at The Golden Globes.  American Hustle also won the Best Ensemble Award at The Screen Actors Guild Awards, which is the most prestigious award at the event.

Senior Vincent Cao said, “American Hustle’s acting is really good but it doesn’t deserve to win Best Picture because of its plot, especially compared to its competition.”

12 Years a Slave won best picture at The Critics’ Choice awards, and Best Drama Motion Picture at the Golden Globes while Gravity won Best Feature Film at the Directors Guild Awards. Gravity and 12 Years a Slave tied at The Producers Guild in the Outstanding Producer category which is the award show’s top honor.

“Gravity doesn’t deserve best picture,” said Cao, “but it was probably more difficult to make interesting because of how it focuses on minimal characters in one setting,  however this could be seen as one of its weaknesses, while 12 Years a Slave spanned years.”

For each of the past six years, the winner of The Producers Guild Awards Best Producer has gone on to win the Oscar.

When Argo won best picture, it was a good example of earlier award shows influencing The Oscars is the win of Best Picture by Argo.

When Ben Affleck, lead actor of Argo, wasn’t nominated for best director it seemed as though Argo didn’t have a chance to win best picture.  However, Argo gained momentum as it kept winning award after award, including best producer at the Producers Guild Awards, and Best Picture at the Oscars.

With this year’s tie between 12 Years a Slave and Gravity at the Producer’s Guild Awards, it seems as though the race for best picture at the academy awards is closer than ever.

The Academy Awards are traditionally held on the last Sunday of February, however this year the broadcast will coincide with the Winter Olympics Closing Ceremonies.  Therefore the event has been moved to March 2.