My favorite season has arrived: award season. Get the carpet ready, because there’s an army of gold statues to hand out.
The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, will be held March 15, available to watch on ABC, Hulu or YouTube TV. Who will win?
When Oscar nominations come out, I make it a goal to watch all the Best Picture nominees. Not because I am a film student with a Letterboxd account, but to predict what awards the movies will win at the Oscars.
Predictions
The Oscars have a lot of categories to comb through, but here are my predictions for the five major categories at the Oscars.
Best Screenplay — Ryan Coogler, “Sinners“
“Sinners” was the cinema event of last summer. There has been a drought of good, non-remake movies, and “Sinners” provided that. The vampires felt like a fully well-rounded part of the plot and conflict, and it covered the history of the Deep South beautifully and educationally.
Best Actor — Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another“
Justin Chang at NPR talks about DiCaprio’s performance in this movie, calling him “an underappreciated comic performer.” While DiCaprio’s performance is comedic, it did not leave me as impressed as other performances this season, as I thought the standout in this film was Chase Infiniti’s character. While it is not my top choice, “One Battle After Another” has been succeeding this award season, having already won 200 awards.
Best Actress — Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”
There is a reason why Buckley’s performance in this film is being talked about. Her role as Agnes is beautifully feminine, but at no point does she become a stereotypically weak and brittle female character.
Her ability to convey grief and motherhood has led to Buckley winning at the Golden Globes and the British Academy Film Awards, showcasing that she is very lucky to take home the big win in March.
Best Director — Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”
Coogler has had lots of box office success in the past with previous films like “Fruitvale Station” and “Black Panther.” “Sinners” is Coogler at his strongest, and he has strived to become better with each film he has made, which is a great quality in a director.
Best Picture —”One Battle After Another”
“One Battle After Another” is already a top taker of this award season. It has won in this category in the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, and it has been taking home wins in other categories as well. It’s safe to say they could be going home with the Best Picture win, and maybe sweep the most Oscar categories.
The other nominees
“Marty Supreme” is my hot take — I left the theater massively disappointed when I saw it. It has been noticeable that in recent years, Timothée Chalamet is gunning for a Best Actor win. However, his role and performance in “Marty Supreme” is one of his weaker performances compared to his roles in the past.
“Train Dreams” is an underdog in this list for me. I watched it suspecting nothing, and when the credits rolled, I couldn’t stop thinking about the rawness of the story. The cinematography is breathtaking, and that, combined with the color grading, I think it can go home with the win in Cinematography.
“The Secret Agent” and “Sentimental Value” are the films not from the United States that are nominated for Best Picture this year, and have both won in International Film categories this season. I predict the film going home with the International Feature Film win will be “Sentimental Value.” This movie is complex, handling grief and family dynamics, and gives Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning moments to shine.
Movies like “F1” and “Frankenstein” are the weaker nominees this season. While both films are solid, I predict they will only get less publicized wins, like sound editing/sound design for “F1” and production design for “Frankenstein.”
They’re both great category wins, but these films do not seem like ones that are the big sweepers of the night, and have not been big sweepers at the Globes or BAFTAs.
Naturally, whoever wins might receive hate online because of snub ideology. However, it is important to remember the Oscars are the best films going up against each other. It is an unfortunate reality that your favorite films and performances might not win.
What do you think?
If you love award season and want to watch more films, watch the nominees. A lot of the films this year are original or recent adaptations, not reboots or remakes, and cover great topics and themes.
Watch as many as you can — see if you agree with my predictions.
