Academy Awards 2014 predictions have coming in and the latest film -actor - director combination to hitch the limelight is American Hustle Jennifer Lawrence David O' Russell. 

The 2013 movie based on Abscam scandal of 1970s won two prestigious awards at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards 2013: Best Film 2013 and Best Screenplay (shared by David O' Russell and Eric Singer).

The third laurel came in the form of New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress award for Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Christian Bale's wife Rosalyn Rosenfeld in American Hustle.  The movie will release in US on December 13, 2013.

The NYFCC Awards 2013 have put Jennifer Lawrence and American Hustle as the frontrunners for 86th Academy Award 2014 nomination. Jennifer Lawrence won the Academy Awards for Best Actress 2013 for her role in Silver Linings Playbook and fans are looking forward to an encore, at the nominations as well as final awards.

While David O' Russell's latest venture basked in glory at the prestigious Gotham City awards, the smashing hit of 2013, Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity and it's cast were conspicuously absent from the winners' list.

Not that the NY Film Critics Circle Awards do not matter, but the pattern over the years shows that they are not a very reliable indicator of Academy Awards nominations and winners. 

For instance, only Daniel Day Lewis took home the Oscar from amongst all other who had won NYFCC Awards 2012 for the movie (Sally Field for Best Supporting Actress and Tony Kushner for Best Screenplay)

Some awards buzz watchers and analysts are of the view that the NY critics awards have nothing but raised the expectations from the film, especially when it will release next week. 

The 86th Academy Awards selection committee is surely going to scrutinize it more minutely, for they may not want to be tagged as a team whose decisions are easy to predict.