This year’s Oscar’s ceremony has been a lot of chaos in terms of organizing. The addition, and later removal, of the Best Popular Film category, the removal of Kevin Hart as host and having no host (though that could change), and then the temporary agenda of having four categories during commercial breaks. All this panic because last year’s was the lowest-rated ever!
Outside of chaos for organizing, the awards season has had a lot of lopsided results. A lot of cases of films coming from nowhere to get nominated. Also a lot of Oscar snubs winning their guild awards like Emily Blunt and Bo Burnham. It really threw a wrench in a lot of predictions. However the show must go on.
Despite the insanity, I have been able to make my predictions this year. Some were easy, but others were hard. Here are my predictions of who Should Win (SW) and Will Win (WW) the Oscars, along with some Closest Threat (CT) picks:
BEST PICTURE
SW & WW: Roma
CT: Green Book
There’s a lot of confusion for who will win this category. If all go as planned normally and the winner has the best combined acting, directing, writing and editing, it would either be BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite or Vice. Roma may be missing an editing nomination but I think it will find itself the winner. It could become the first foreign-language film to win in this category. Also the first NetFlix film.
BEST DIRECTOR
SW & WW: ALFONSO CUARON/Roma
CT: SPIKE LEE/BlacKkKlansman
This could be the fifth year out of the past six that Best Director goes to a Mexican director.
BEST ACTOR
SW & WW: RAMI MALEK/Bohemian Rhapsody
CT: CHRISTIAN BALE/Vice
Before Freddie Mercury, Rami’s biggest break looked to be the Pharaoh in the Night At The Museum movies. This is a role of a lifetime.
BEST ACTRESS
SW & WW: GLENN CLOSE/The Wife
CT1: OLIVIA COLMAN/The Favourite
CT2: LADY GAGA/A Star Is Born
Everybody has a certain favorite Glenn Close role, whether it be Sarah Cooper, Teddy Barnes, Alex Forrest, Marquise Isabel, Cruella de Vil or Nova Prime Irani. After six previous nominations without winning, I think now is her time.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
SW & WW: MAHERSHALA ALI/Green Book
CT: RICHARD E. GRANT/Can You Ever Forgive Me
Thirteen of this year's twenty acting nominations are to roles of people who existed or exist. It's especially felt among the male nomineees as the male nominees from A Star Is Born are the only nomineesof fictional characters.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
SW & WW: REGINA KING/If Beale Street Could Talk
CT: RACHEL WEISZ/The Favourite
Talk about a lot of lopsided awards show results, to think Regina wasn’t nominated for a SAG award. Makes you wonder. Also to think the SAG winner was Emily Blunt from A Quiet Place. All these years of OscarWatching and the awards shows still don't make sense!
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
SW: ALFONSO CUARON/Roma
WW: NICK VALLELONGA, BRIAN HAYES CURRIE & PETER FARRELLY/Green Book
CT: DEBORAH DAVIS & TONY McNAMARA/The Favourite
Talk about lopsided results. Bo Burnham’s script for Eighth Grade was snubbed of a nomination but won the Writers Guild of America award. That makes things hard to predict here. Despite people debating the accuracy of the story in Green Book, I think it has the best chance of winning.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
WW: CHARLIE WACHTEL, DAVID RABINOWITZ, KEVIN WILLMOTT & SPIKE LEE/BlacKkKlansman
SW & CT: BARRY JENKINS/If Beale Street Could Talk
Spike Lee opened the door to a lot of African American directors. Barry Jenkins looks to be the heir apparent. Before Spike passes the torch, he has an Oscar to win. This could be it here.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
SS & WW: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
CT: The Incredibles 2
Remember last year there was a big debate here of which was better? Ferdinand or eventual winner CoCo? This year there’s no dispute. Spider-Verse had the best and most thrilling story along with a creative mesh of 3D animation and comic book images. To think 2018’s year in animation looked to be dominated by sequels.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
SW & WW: ALFONSO CUARON/Roma
CT: LUKASZ ZAL/Cold War
Interesting how three Best Foreign Language film nominees have their cinematographers nominated here. Cuaron will be man of the night on Sunday. For those into Oscar Trivia, has there ever been wins of both Best Director and Best Cinematographer in the past?
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
SW & WW: SANDY POWELL/The Favourite
CT: RUTH E. CARTER/Black Panther
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
WW: Free Solo
CT: RBG
BEST FILM EDITING
WW: JOHN OTTMAN/Bohemian Rhapsody
CT: HANK CORWIN/Vice
To think this is one of the four categories that was intended to be awarded during commercial breaks. Thanks to those of us that were unhappy, all 24 will have their moment broadcast.
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
WW: Cold War (Poland)
SW & CT: Roma (Mexico)
This category has had some big surprises in the past. Most people are expecting Roma to win, but I anticipate an upset from Cold War.
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
WW: GREG CANNOM, KATE BISCOE and PATRICIA DEHANEY/Vice
CT: JENNY SHIRCORE, MARC PILCHER and JESSICA BROOKS/Mary Queen of Scots
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
WW: NICHOLAS BRITTEL/If Beale Street Could Talk
SW & CT: LUDWIG GORANSON/Black Panther
To think the score from First Man wasn’t nominated.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
SW & WW: ‘Shallow’/A Star Is Born
CT: ‘All The Stars’/Black Panther
If Lady Gaga loses Best Actress, expect Gaga to applaud the winner while social media explodes with brattitude. Monsters indeed! However they will have no reason to throw a hissyfit as she’s the near-unanimous favorite here.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
WW: FIONA CROMBIE/The Favourite
CT: HANNAH BEACHLER/Black Panther
Tough choice. Kensington Palace or Wakanda? I think the Academy favors timepieces over sci-fi fantasy sets.
BEST SOUND EDITING
WW: A Quiet Place
CT: First Man
To think this is the one nomination for A Quiet Place!
BEST SOUND MIXING
WW: A Star Is Born
CT: Bohemian Rhapsody
To think in a category normally dominated by sci-fi films, two of the biggest favorites are music movies.
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
WW: First Man
SW & CT: Avengers: Infinity War
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
WW: Bao
CT: One Small Step
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
WW: Period. End Of Sentence
CT: Black Sheep
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM
WW: Marguerite
CT: Skin
This category caught a load of controversy when Detainment was nominated. I think because of that, it won’t win.
And there you have it. My predictions for Sunday’s Academy Awards. There’s a rumor happening right now that Whoopi Goldberg may host this year. We’ll see tomorrow. We’ll also see who wins what.
Excellent picks I am glad to see the love for "Roma" my choice from the time I left the cinema, I expect it to be a multiple Oscar winner including best film but you never know lots of good competition.
My best pic is Black Panther, I like the choices of the voters of your poll than I do with the Oscars but then they are all teens like me so maybe that is why I agree.
I'm unhappy Green Book won, but it was my CT pick because it won the Golden Globe and the Producers Guild award.
Broderick said:
How did you even pick Green Book as a CT I don't know that wn for most came out of left field, I mean I heard Spike Lee was so miffed he tried to storm out.
Gaga won for Best Original song. I just hate when Twitterbrats throw a fit whenever Gaga loses Best Actress. I was shocked Olivia Colman won as I expected Glenn Close to finally win it. However Colman is very deserving of Best Actress.
Sherrie Baby said:
I really hope Lady Gaga win, but the fix is in.
Famous as far as TSO and Former teens Stars go. I like to write entertainment colums. I'm a teacher now. However I did have journalistic ambitions in college. Professors told me I was a great writer, but I had problems sticking within the word count. Besides I'm not egotistical or arrogant enough to make it as a journalist. I don't mind keeping my writing here.
CoolJ said:
Oh no, I hope Whoopi is not the host I hate her, dude you like this Roma movie what is about some gypsies or something? hey, ppl say you are a famous Entertainment columnist that post here???
I took a fit because I wanted the LADY to win the best actress, A Stars is Born and Black Panther was ripped off all around.
Disappointed but it is not the end of the world it is not like Green Book is not a good movie but I am such a fan of the excellent Roma. Now you also have Spielberg shooting his mouth off about banning Netflix from the Oscars.