Predicting the Oscars is always tricky. Sure, by the time the ceremony rolls around, most of the presumptive winners feel written in stone. (Though this year’s Best Actress contest is one genuine toss-up between two stones – Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone.) Where your Oscar ballot can get truly screwed up though is when it comes to choosing the winners in the shorts category. Those three categories aren’t voted on by the whole Academy membership like the others, but by members who must register to watch all five nominees in the specific category. And who can really tell just how those who choose to go that extra step will feel about the range of nominees with little in the way of presumptive winners?
I’ll make my best-educated guesses here. It’s looking like OPPENHEIMER is in for a big sweep with yours truly predicting that it will take eight statues, but it’s a safe bet that it will at least win five (Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Cinematography and Score). As for those shorts, well, I’ve seen them all and these are my best guesses, though not necessarily the ones that I would vote for.
So good luck with your predictions, and hopefully, it will be a good show this year as it was an exceptional year for films in 2023, perhaps the best in this century so far.
Best Picture: Oppenheimer
Best Director: Christopher Nolan “Oppenheimer”
Best Actor: Cillian Murphy “Oppenheimer”
Best Actress: Lily Gladstone “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Best Supp Actor: Robert Downey Jr “Oppenheimer”
Best Supp Actress: Da’ Vine Randolph “The Holdovers”
Best Original Screenplay: Anatomy of a Fall
Best Adapted Screenplay: American Fiction
Best Cinematography: Oppenheimer
Best Sound: Oppenheimer
Best Editing: Oppenheimer
Best Original Score: Oppenheimer
Best Costume Design: Barbie
Best Production Design: Poor Things
Best Visual Effects: Godzilla Minus One
Best Makeup & Hair: Poor Things
Best Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse
Best International Film: The Zone of Interest
Best Documentary: 20 Days in Mariupol
Best Documentary Short: The Barber of Little Rock
Best Animated Short: War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
Best Live Action Short: The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar
Best Song: “What Was I Made For” (Barbie)
