I miss going to a movie theatre. There is no question about it. Having said that, it’s been pretty nice to be able to see almost every nomination-worthy movie from the comfort of my own home. And over the past year, these movies have been very therapeutic.
Here are the nominees for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards in all the major categories. Any nomination in BLUE indicates that I have not seen it. I present my predictions on who will win, along with who SHOULD win. Here we go!
Best picture
- “Mank”
- “Judas and the Black Messiah”
- “The Father”
- “Nomadland”
- “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
- “Minari”
- “Sound of Metal”
- “Promising Young Woman”
Who will win: Nomadland has absolutely dominated the awards season and as much as I’d love to call for the upset here, I think it wins this one too. It’s very worthy.
Who should win: Minari. Nomadland was brilliant, my #2 movie of the year. But Minari was as close to perfection as a movie gets.
Best director
- Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman”
- Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari”
- Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland”
- David Fincher, “Mank”
- Thomas Vinterberg, “Another Round”
Who will win: Zhao has cleaned up, winning every prize available to her. No reason to overthink this, she’ll take this one too.
Who should win: Zhao. Directing a bunch of amateurs, with a script that featured a bunch of ad libbing, and creating this masterpiece? Give her a trophy.
Best actor in a leading role
- Riz Ahmed, “Sound of Metal”
- Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
- Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”
- Gary Oldman, “Mank”
- Steven Yeun, “Minari”
Who will win: If it’s not Boseman, this would be the upset of the night.
Who should win: Hopkins’ transcendent performance as a dementia patient hit every note. It was a perfect performance. But Boseman was perfect too, and since we can’t cut the award in half, I’ll be one of the ones tearing up when Boseman’s wife accepts the award on his behalf.
Best actress in a leading role
- Viola Davis, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
- Andra Day, “United States vs. Billie Holiday”
- Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces of a Woman”
- Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”
- Carey Mulligan, “Promising Young Woman”
Who will win: Davis, in the closest of votes. This is really a tossup, as Mulligan and McDormand were equally brilliant, and Day won the Golden Globe.
Who should win: Davis. The exclusion of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” from the Best Picture nominees was a travesty, but if it wins both major acting awards, that’s a pretty good consolation prize.
Best actor in a supporting role
- Sacha Baron Cohen, “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
- Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas and the Black Messiah”
- Leslie Odom Jr., “One Night in Miami…”
- Paul Raci, “Sound of Metal”
- LaKeith Stanfield, “Judas and the Black Messiah”
Who will win: Kaluuya has won everything this awards season. It’s possible he may split some votes with his screen mate Stanfield, who was equally as good. And maybe the fact that Kaluuya’s performance doesn’t belong in a supporting category (neither does Stanfield’s, to be honest) will hurt him and we will see a huge upset? But I am sticking with Kaluuya.
Who should win: Cohen’s portrayal of Abby Hoffman was so spot-on, and so vital to the success of the film, he’s my choice. But every one of these performances was fantastic.
Best actress in a supporting role
- Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
- Glenn Close, “Hillbilly Elegy”
- Olivia Colman, “The Father”
- Amanda Seyfried, “Mank”
- Youn Yuh-Jung, “Minari”
Who will win: If there were any doubt a few weeks ago, when Yuh-Jung accepted the BAFTA award and called the Brits “snobby” (which she undoubtedly didn’t mean as an insult), that would have cemented it.
Who should win: I love Amanda Seyfried in an almost-inappropriate way, and she deserves to be recognized for her brilliant work here; but her lack of screen time and the tour-de-force performance by Yuh-Jung in the best movie of the year is my pick. Side note: Barring a major upset, Glenn Close is going to tie Peter O’Toole with the most Oscar acting nominations without a win. She will be 0-for-8.
Best original screenplay
- Will Berson and Shaka King, “Judas and the Black Messiah”
- Aaron Sorkin, “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
- Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari”
- Darius Marder and Abraham Marder, “Sound of Metal”
- Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman”
Who will win: Everyone, and I mean everyone, is predicting Emerald Fennell wins here. If there is an upset, it will be Sorkin, they say. Nobody has given Chung a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning this. They are all wrong.
Who should win: Chung, and it’s not really that close.
Best adapted screenplay
- Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman and Lee Kern, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
- Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller, “The Father”
- Kemp Powers, “One Night in Miami…”
- Ramin Bahrani, “The White Tiger”
- Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland”
Who will win: Hampton and Zeller get rewarded for a beautiful screenplay that at once confuses and invigorates the audience. Zhao gets her award in the directing category, and the screenplay isn’t the key to her film.
Who should win: Hampton and Zeller.
Best cinematography
- “Judas and the Black Messiah”
- “Mank”
- “News of the World”
- “Nomadland”
- “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
Who will win: Nomadland by a mile.
Who should win: Ditto.
Best film editing
- “The Father”
- “Nomadland”
- “Promising Young Woman”
- “Sound of Metal”
- “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
Who will win: Sound of Metal
Who should win: Sound of Metal
Best animated feature film
- “Onward”
- “Over the Moon”
- “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon”
- “Soul”
- “Wolfwalkers”
Who will win: Soul
Who should win: Soul. Wolfwalkers was cute, but not in the same league.
Best animated short film
- “Burrow”
- “Genius Loci”
- “If Anything Happens I Love You”
- “Opera”
- “Yes-People”
Who will win: If Anything Happens I Love You
Who should win: If Anything Happens I Love You. It’s beautiful, it’s tragic, it’s heartbreaking…sure, it goes over the top to manipulate your emotions, but that’s not always a bad thing. This is available on NETFLIX, seek it out. You won’t be sorry.
Best live-action short film
- “Feeling Through”
- “The Letter Room”
- “The Present”
- “Two Distant Strangers”
- “White Eye”
Who will win: Two Distant Strangers
Who should win: See my comments about the animated short, and double them here. All of these short films were worthy, but this one will kick you in the nuts repeatedly and it’s something everyone should see. It perfectly encapsulates the world we currently live in.
Best production design
- “The Father”
- “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
- “Mank”
- “News of the World”
- “Tenet”
Who will win: I’ll have to go with Mank here. It’s an excellent film, it had the most nominations, I can’t imagine it goes home with absolutely nothing, does it?
Who should win: Mank.
Best costume design
- “Emma”
- “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
- “Mank”
- “Mulan”
- “Pinocchio”
Who will win: As much as the Academy loves big frocks in period pieces like Emma, the dazzling costumes in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom will prevail.
Who should win: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Best documentary feature
- “Collective”
- “Crip Camp”
- “The Mole Agent”
- “My Octopus Teacher”
- “Time”
Who will win: This is a tough call between Collective (which is only the 2nd film in history to be nominated here and also in the Best International Film category) and My Octopus Teacher, which has rightfully become a Netflix favorite. Collective is an important watch; My Octopus Teacher is a feel-good delight of nature. I will lean towards the feel-good here and go with the Octopus.
Who should win: Collective
Best documentary short subject
- “Collette”
- “A Concerto is a Conversation”
- “Do Not Split”
- “Hunger Ward”
- “A Love Song for Latasha”
Who will win:
Tough one for sure. Difficult to go against the Academy’s affinity for Holocaust stories, so Collette.
Who should win: A Concerto is a Conversation. But Collette was also fabulous.
Best sound
- “Greyhound”
- “Mank”
- “News of the World”
- “Soul”
- “Sound of Metal”
Who will win: Sound of Metal. I mean, it has Sound right in the title.
Who should win: Sound of Metal. It’s really what the entire movie is about, and it’s very, very well done.
Best visual effects
- “Love and Monsters”
- “The Midnight Sky”
- “Mulan”
- “The One and Only Ivan”
- “Tenet”
Who will win: By all accounts, this is Tenet’s to lose.
Who should win: Of the two I saw, The One and Only Ivan made a bunch of animals look pretty life-like.
Best makeup and hairstyling
- “Emma”
- “Hillbilly Elegy”
- “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
- “Mank”
- “Pinocchio”
Who will win: Oscar loves a period drama like Mank, but Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a shoo-in here I think. If you’ve seen Viola Davis in it, you know why.
Who should win: Ma Rainey.
Best international feature film
- “Another Round”
- “Better Days”
- “Collective”
- “The Man Who Sold His Skin”
- “Quo Vadis, Aida”
Who will win: Another Round is the consensus, has the most recognizable star (Mads Mikkelson) and is really, really good.
Who should win: Quo Vadia, Aida is just as heartbreaking as you might imagine a movie about Serbia in 1995 might be. I actually loved every movie that I saw in this category.
Best original score
- “Da 5 Bloods”
- “Mank”
- “Minari”
- “News of the World”
- “Soul”
Who will win: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have two chances here, having scored Soul and Mank, and I believe they will win for Soul (along with co-nominee Jon Batiste).
Who should win: Soul
Best original song
- “Fight for You,” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”
- “Hear My Voice,” from “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
- “Husavik,” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”
- “Io Sì (Seen),” from “The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)”
- “Speak Now,” from “One Night in Miami…”
Who will win: I literally have no clue, there are no great options here. I’ll say that the Academy finally gives the award to Diane Warren (currently 0 for 12) just because there are no better options? Even though it’s in Spanish and nobody saw the film? I’ll go with that, Io Sì.
Who should win: Husavik. I mean, it actually takes place in the film, and the other four all start at the beginning of the closing credits. Plus, it’s a decent enough song, in a year without a really good one.
Well, that’s it, let’s see how I do!
GO MINARI !!!!!!
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