Roll out the red carpet as The Oscars is finally here. This year in movies was one of the biggest and best in recent memory. The days of empty theaters felt like a thing of the past with an unbelievable balance of major movie achievements and summer blockbusters. The 96th version of The Academy Awards features some amazing work between the 53 total nominated films in 24 categories. Here is a prediction of who each of those awards will go to and who they should go to.
Best Visual Effects
The Creator (Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts, and Neil Corbould)
Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Stéphane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams, and Theo Bialek)
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland, and Neil Corbould)
Napoleon (Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco, and Neil Corbould)
Who Will Win: Godzilla Minus One(Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima)
Who Should Win: Godzilla Minus One(Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima)
Best Film Editing
Anatomy of a Fall (Laurent Sénéchal)
The Holdovers (Kevin Tent)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Thelma Schoonmaker)
Oppenheimer (Jennifer Lame)
Poor Things (Yorgos Mavropsaridis)
Who Will Win: Oppenheimer (Jennifer Lame)
Who Should Win: Oppenheimer (Jennifer Lame)
Best Costume Design
Barbie (Jacqueline Durran)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Jacqueline West)
Napoleon (Janty Yates and Dave Crossman)
Oppenheimer (Ellen Mirojnick)
Poor Things (Holly Waddington)
Who Will Win: Poor Things (Holly Waddington)
Who Should Win: Poor Things (Holly Waddington)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Golda (Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby, and Ashra Kelly-Blue)
Maestro (Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou, and Lori McCoy-Bell)
Oppenheimer (Luisa Abel)
Poor Things (Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, and Josh Weston)
Society of the Snow (Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí, and Montse Ribé)
Who Will Win: Poor Things (Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, and Josh Weston)
Who Should Win: Poor Things (Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, and Josh Weston)
Best Cinematography
El Conde (Edward Lachman)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Rodrigo Prieto)
Maestro (Matthew Libatique)
Oppenheimer (Hoyte van Hoytema)
Poor Things (Robbie Ryan)
Who Will Win: Oppenheimer (Hoyte van Hoytema)
Who Should Win: Oppenheimer (Hoyte van Hoytema)
Best Production Design
Barbie (Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Adam Willis)
Napoleon (Production Design: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Elli Griff)
Oppenheimer (Production Design: Ruth De Jong; Set Decoration: Claire Kaufman)
Poor Things (Production Design: James Price and Shona Heath; Set Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek)
Who Will Win: Poor Things (Production Design: James Price and Shona Heath; Set Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek)
Who Should Win: Barbie (Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer)
Truthfully, this award could go to Poor Things, Barbie, or Killers of the Flower Moon and all films would be deserving. The team for Poor Things created beautiful sets to fit a fantasy period piece to the point where the viewer feels like they are looking at some sort of horrific wonderland. To me, the team of Spencer and Greenwood for Barbie, brought the world of Mattel to life and is the most deserving. Barbie essentially did the opposite of what Pixar did with Toy Story, bringing humans into an amazing toy world.
Best Sound
The Creator (Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich, and Dean Zupancic)
Maestro (Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich, and Dean Zupancic)
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon, and Mark Taylor)
Oppenheimer (Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo, and Kevin O’Connell)
The Zone of Interest (Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn)
Who Will Win: Oppenheimer (Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo, and Kevin O’Connell)
Who Should Win: Oppenheimer (Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo, and Kevin O’Connell)
The Best Sound award will ultimately come down to Oppenheimer and The Zone of Interest. Considering a large focus of The Zone of Interest is the ability for people to block out the exterior things around them, including the horrific sounds of a Nazi concentration camp, Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn could swipe this award off of the Oppenheimer tally. In the end, I think the team from Oppenheimer claims the win. It’s the year of Oppenheimer and the sound production for Christopher Nolan’s film was phenomenal.
Best Original Song
“The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot (Music and lyrics by Diane Warren)
“I’m Just Ken” from Barbie (Music and lyrics by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt)
“It Never Went Away” from American Symphony (Music and lyrics by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson)
“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon (Music and lyrics by Scott George)
“What Was I Made For?” from Barbie (Music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell)
Who Will Win: “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie (Music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell)
Who Should Win: “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie (Music and lyrics by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt)
The silliest award of the evening might as well go to the silliest song of the nominees. Best Original Song is often filled with nominations that do not have any substantial connection to the actual film and of course, the annual Diane Warren nomination that frequently comes from an absolutely terrible movie that most people have never seen.. With the two Barbie songs actually having themes connected to their film, one of these deserves to win. Ultimately, it’s likely this award goes to Billie Eilish, but “I’m Just Ken” would be a fun surprise to look back on years from now.
Best Original Score
American Fiction (Laura Karpman)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (John Williams)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Robbie Robertson)
Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson)
Poor Things (Jerskin Fendrix)
Who Will Win: Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson)
Who Should Win: Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson)
Ludwig Göransson created a beautiful score that is an integral part of Oppenheimer. Göransson wins his second Oscar (Black Panther in 2019) in one of the certainties of the night.
Best Animated Short Film
Letter to a Pig (Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter)
Ninety-Five Senses (Jared and Jerusha Hess)
Our Uniform (Yegane Moghaddam)
Pachyderme (Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius)
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko (Dave Mullins and Brad Booker)
Who Will Win: Letter to a Pig (Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter)
Who Should Win: Ninety-Five Senses (Jared and Jerusha Hess)
Best Live Action Short Film
The After (Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham)
Invincible (Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron)
Knight of Fortune (Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk)
Red, White and Blue (Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson and Steven Rales)
Who Will Win: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson and Steven Rales)
Who Should Win: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson and Steven Rales)
Wes Anderson winning his first Oscar for a short film backed by Netflix may be unpopular considering he is already a successful director of feature films with a unique style, but if we are giving awards out for the strongest nomination then this should be an obvious win for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. The film has the usual quirky Anderson style and features performances by Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes. It may not seem fair, but this is the correct choice.
Best Documentary Short
The ABCs of Book Banning (Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic)
The Barber of Little Rock (John Hoffman and Christine Turner)
Island in Between (S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien)
The Last Repair Shop (Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers)
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Sean Wang and Sam Davis)
Who Will Win: The Last Repair Shop (Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers)
Who Should Win: The Barber of Little Rock (John Hoffman and Christine Turner)
This category feels like a relatively week category this year. The only way The Academy could really screw this award up is if The ABCs of Book Banning wins. No offense to Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic or the importance of defending literature in schools, but this documentary just feels lazy. Imagine a powerpoint presentation of books that have been banned and commentary provided by elementary age children, then you would have The ABCs of Book Banning.
Best Documentary Feature
Bobi Wine: The People’s President (Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp, and John Battsek)
The Eternal Memory (Maite Alberdi)
Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha)
To Kill a Tiger (Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe, and David Oppenheim)
20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, and Raney Aronson-Rath)
Who Will Win: 20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, and Raney Aronson-Rath)
Who Should Win: 20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, and Raney Aronson-Rath)
Credit goes to those who watch all of this year’s Best Documentary Feature nominations. This was a brutal slate of movies. Not because these are poor films, but because a majority of this year’s nominated documentaries are grim with strong subject matter including war, rape, terrorism, dementia, and civil unrest. These are good documentaries for those who can stomach them. Arguably the hardest to watch was 20 Days in Mariupol which featured on the ground footage of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. The footage is haunting and terribly upsetting, but it is an important film for people to see.
Best International Feature Film
Lo capitano (Italy)
Perfect Days (Japan)
Society of the Snow (Spain)
The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany)
The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom)
Who Will Win: The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom)
Who Should Win: The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom)
Best Animated Feature Film
The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki)
Elemental (Peter Sohn and Denise Ream)
Nimona (Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan, and Julie Zackary)
Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé, and Sandra Tapia Díaz)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal)
Who Will Win: The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki)
Who Should Win: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Amy Pascal)
One of the closest races of Sunday evening will be the animated competition. Does Hayao Miyazaki win his second Oscar (Spirited Away, 2003) or will Spider-Man go two for two with its Spider-Verse films? Rumored to be Miyazaki’s final film, The Boy and the Heron would make sense as a sort of legacy award for a beloved animation artist/director. Across the Spider-Verse is an unbelievable achievement in animation, taking the beautiful imagery we saw in 2019, but making it bigger and better. Not only would Across the Spider-Verse be my Best Animated Feature Film selection, but I do feel it needed more consideration in the Best Picture race.
Best Adapted Screenplay
American Fiction (Cord Jefferson; based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett)
Barbie (Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach; based on characters created by Ruth Handler)
Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan; based on the biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin)
Poor Things (Tony McNamara; based on the novel by Alasdair Gray)
The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer; based on the novel by Martin Amis)
Who Will Win: American Fiction (Cord Jefferson; based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett)
Who Should Win: Poor Things (Tony McNamara; based on the novel by Alasdair Gray)
This may be the one award that American Fiction wins on the night and it would be deserving as it is a brilliantly written adaptation. If Cord Jefferson does not win, it is likely that Oppenheimer adds another statue to their pile of awards on the night. It’s a near certainty that Poor Things does not win this award, but I do believe that this script, and particularly the dialogue, are deserving of an accolade. Never having read any of the source material, I thought the structure of Poor Things and the ever progressing dialogue of Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter throughout the film was very well written. Poor Things has this impressive ability to feel so random, yet meticulously organized at the same time.
Best Original Screenplay
Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet and Arthur Harari)
The Holdovers (David Hemingson)
Maestro (Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer)
May December (Screenplay by Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik)
Past Lives (Celine Song)
Who Will Win: Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet and Arthur Harari)
Who Should Win: Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet and Arthur Harari)
Any of the Best Original Screenplay nominees would be worthy winners, including May December, which is the only movie not nominated for Best Picture. Anatomy of a Fall has seemingly been the favorite for weeks now and with it not entering into the Best Foreign Language category, Justine Trier and Arthur Harari would seem its best chance to receive a major award.
Best Supporting Actress
Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer)
Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple)
America Ferrera (Barbie)
Jodie Foster (Nyad)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)
Who Will Win: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)
Who Should Win: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)
One of the few awards that has been locked away for months. Da’Vine Joy Randolph is outstanding as the lone female component of the amazing chemistry between a trio that also features Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa. She has swept every other award show in this category and the same thing will happen this Sunday. For what it’s worth, my second favorite on her own island would be Blunt.
Best Supporting Actor
Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction)
Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
Ryan Gosling (Barbie)
Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)
Who Will Win: Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
Who Should Win: Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
The Best Supporting Actor category is absolutely loaded and although I’d prefer to De Niro swapped for someone like Willem Dafoe (Poor Things), Charles Melton (May December), or Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers), the truth of the matter is that like many years, Actor in a Supporting Role is just a loaded category. All respect to each nomination, but anything other than Downey Jr. winning would be shocking. It’s not to say Downey Jr.’s performance far exceeds the others, but he plays a very prominent role in the biggest movie of the year that just happens to be a true story. The fact that he is outstanding and has also never won an Oscar, despite being one of Hollywood’s biggest stars certainly doesn’t hurt.
Best Actress
Annette Bening (Nyad)
Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall)
Carey Mulligan (Maestro)
Emma Stone (Poor Things)
Who Will Win: Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Who Should Win: Emma Stone (Poor Things)
Arguably the tightest race of the entire evening will be the one between Gladstone and Stone. Both came away with Golden Globes due to the separation of Best Actress for Drama and Comedy. Gladstone will be the expected winner as she just recently won the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actress. Although I personally prefer Stone to win for her performance in Poor Things, a win for Gladstone cannot be argued against. Heck, even an unexpected win for Sandra Hüller’s outstanding work as the primary focal point of Anatomy of a Fall would be deserving.
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper (Maestro)
Colman Domingo (Rustin)
Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)
Who Will Win: Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
Who Should Win: Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
I’ve had stock in Murphy for years and always wondered why we didn’t see him in more featured movie roles. Consider the performance of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his inevitable win as validation. Best Actor was a loaded category this year and as much as people loved Giammati and The Holdovers, Murphy is the focal point in a three hour historic biopic epic that is also the favorite for Best Picture. I will be one of many who will be happy to see Murphy get his win, but will also feel bad for some other incredible performances that will leave empty handed.
Best Director
Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)
Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest)
Who Will Win: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Who Should Win: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Best Picture
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Who Will Win: Oppenheimer
Who Should Win: Oppenheimer
This year in movies has brought forward some amazing films. This has been the most balanced group of Best Picture nominations in recent memory. Despite that balance, this has been Christopher Nolan’s year from the moment Oppenheimer started showing on IMAX screens. The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atom bomb is a cinematic masterpiece. All of these films are worth watching and have strengths, but Oppenheimer will and should win the biggest award of the evening.