'12 Years a Slave' Tops Peter Travers Top 10 Films of the Year

Peter Travers has announced his top 10 films of the year. 

He named "12 Years A Slave" the best picture of the year. "Gravity" followed in second place, and Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" came in third place.

The list also included Best Picture contenders "Her," "American Hustle," "Captain Phillips," "Nebraska" and "Inside Llewyn Davis."

Two surprise choices included "Blue Jasmine" and "Before Midnight" as they are not expected to land best picture nominations at the Oscars.

The reason Travers' list is significant to the Academy is because he generally chooses all the films that end up on the Best Picture list. Last year, out of his 10 films eight went on to get nominated for Best Picture. The only film that was not on his list was "Amour." The same thing happened in 2011 when eight of the Best Picture nominees ended up on his list. That year the only one he failed to honor was "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

Travers, however, rarely chooses the Best Picture winner. Last year he named "The Master" the Best Film and in 2011 he chose "Drive." Neither one of these films landed a Best Picture nod at the Academy. Other films he has named the Best Film include "The Social Network," "Precious," "Milk" and "No Country For Old Men," which won the Oscar.

While Top 10 lists are generally not good Oscar predictors, a general consensus by critics can lead up to critics awards and potentially an Oscar win. Director Steve McQueen's "12 years a Slave" will need to top many lists in order to win the critics circles and eventually the Oscar.