City cab riders flagged “American Hustle” as most likely to win Best Picture in the Academy Awards on Sunday in a back-seat survey conducted by the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
They also predicted that Jennifer Lawrence, who plays a con man’s wife in the film, would catapult past Lupita Nyong’o of “12 Years a Slave” for Best Supporting Actress — giving her 45 percent of passengers’ votes compared with 23 percent for Nyong’o.
Between Feb. 3 and Friday, almost 120,000 riders used Taxi TV to cast their votes.
For Best Actress, Sandra Bullock scored 35 percent of the vote for her role as an engineer on her first shuttle mission in the space thriller “Gravity” — beating out Amy Adams, who got 24 percent for her con-artist role in “American Hustle.”
Riders also expected “The Wolf of Wall Street” to do well, and voted for Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill as most likely to score Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for their performances.
DiCaprio was a clear winner with 40 percent of the votes. But riders also liked Bradley Cooper in “American Hustle” as a close runner-up to Hill, with the two earning 23 and 24 percent, respectively.
Steve McQueen was also a favorite with the back-seat crowd and considered most likely to win the Best Director award for “12 Years a Slave.”
He squeaked past close competitor Alfonso Cuarón, who directed “Gravity.”
More than half of voters picked “Frozen” for Best Animated Feature, followed by “Despicable Me 2,” which got 29 percent.
Conan Freud, the TLC’s chief operating officer, told The Post that taxis and the movies go together — from “It’s a Wonderful Life” to “Scrooged,” “Taxi Driver” and “Home Alone 2.”
His favorite cab cameo is Eddie Murphy’s ride to Queens in “Coming to America.”
“Of course, a real taxi can’t handle that much luggage, but I have absolute confidence that our cabbies are every bit as willing to go the extra mile as Jake Steinfeld’s character was,” he said of that film.
Freud said that despite riders’ penchant for “American Hustle” and “Gravity” star Bullock, he will be rooting this Sunday for “Captain Phillips” and Cate Blanchett, nominated for Best Actress in “Blue Jasmine.”
“I think that part of the fun for some survey participants may have been thinking about how taxis and cabbies have earned their place in movie history while they voted,” he said.
The TLC began surveying riders for the first time last year.
They predicted “Lincoln” would scoop up the Best Picture award — but it was beaten out by political thriller “Argo.”
Riders did correctly pick Daniel Day-Lewis as Best Actor for “Lincoln,” as well as “Brave” for Animated Feature.