It's the most coveted prize in Hollywood and we'll find out which actors and films are a step closer to picking up an Oscar on Thursday morning.

Best picture favourites for the 2013 Academy Awards include the history-based ``Lincoln,'' ''Zero Dark Thirty,`` ''Les Miserables`` and ''Argo.`` Among other prospects are ''Django Unchained`` and ''Life of Pi.``

Two past Oscar ceremony hosts have strong shots at nominations for ``Les Miserables'': Hugh Jackman for best actor as Victor Hugo's tragic hero Jean Valjean and Anne Hathaway for supporting actress as a doomed single mother forced into prostitution.

Other acting possibilities include Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro for the oddball romance ``Silver Linings Playbook; Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz for ''Django Unchained``; Affleck and Alan Arkin for ''Argo``; John
Hawkes and Helen Hunt for the sex-surrogate story ''The Sessions``; Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams for the 1950s cult tale ''The Master``; Bill Murray for the Franklin Roosevelt comic drama ''Hyde Park on Hudson``; Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren for the filmmaking chronicle ''Hitchcock``; Marion Cotillard
for the French-language drama ''Rust and Bone``; and Denzel Washington for the airliner-crash saga ''Flight.``

Thursday's nominees will be announced at 8:40 a.m. EST by Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane, the host of the Feb. 24 Oscar show

(some files by Canadian Press)