97th Academy Awards

Hello, all! I am in a good mood today because it is Oscars day! My family is one of those families that takes the Oscars super seriously. It’s like our Super Bowl, but if the Super Bowl had a bunch of homework to complete before you watched. Historically, it’s been my mum and Jayden leading the charge, but I have always enjoyed watching the ceremony with everybody. For the past few years I’ve hosted small Oscars parties with friends, and have seen only a few of the nominees beforehand. This year, I not only watched all 10 Best Picture nominees, I also watched every Best Acting nominee, Animated Feature nominee, and pretty much every short film except I fell asleep for a bit during the animated ones. Every year we fill out our Oscars prediction ballots, and this year, I decided to share not only my predictions for the categories I care about, but also what I think should win, and my favourite of the nominees. 

Edit: Now updated with the actual winners below each prediction.

Best Picture

Prediction: Anora

Opinion: Anora

Favourite: Wicked

Additional thoughts: Wicked was obviously my favourite because I am a theatre geek at heart. I still think Conclave has a chance of winning because I think it was designed to win best picture. My top three favourites were Wicked, Anora, and The Substance, but I also thought Sing Sing and A Real Pain deserved to be nominated for Best Picture.

Winner: Anora

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Prediction: Demi Moore, The Substance

Opinion: Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Favourite: Mikey Madison, Anora

Winner: Mikey Madison, Anora

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Prediction: Adrian Brody, The Brutalist

Opinion: Ralph Fiennes, Conclave

Favourite: Coleman Domingo, Sing Sing

Winner: Adrian Brody, The Brutalist

Best Actress in a Supporting Role 

Prediction: Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Perez

Opinion: Ariana Grande, Wicked

Favourite: Ariana Grande, Wicked

Winner: Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Perez

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Prediction: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Opinion: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Favourite: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Additional thoughts: Clarence Maclin should have been nominated for Sing Sing. His performance was so good, and I don’t want to spoil why his performance was so cool, but let me just say the credits caught me by surprise. I highly encourage everyone to watch that movie if it ever comes to a streaming service you have. With that said, even if Maclin was nominated, my choice still would have been Kieran Culkin.

Winner: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Best International Feature Film

Prediction: I’m Still Here

Opinion: I’m Still Here

Favourite: I’m Still Here

Winner: I'm Still Here

Best Documentary Feature Film:

Prediction: No Other Land

Confession: I actually haven’t seen any of them this year, even though I generally love the documentaries. I ran out of time!

Winner: No Other Land

Best Animated Feature Film

Prediction: The Wild Robot

Opinion: Memoir of a Snail

Favourite: The Wild Robot

Additional thoughts: I loved The Wild Robot and Memoir of a Snail about the same amount, although I saw The Wild Robot in theatres, so it’s not as fresh in my brain. I also really liked Inside Out 2. I thought Flow could have been a short film and it would have been equally as effective, but it was visually beautiful.

Winner: Flow

Best Animated Short Film

Prediction: Yuck!

Opinion: Magic Candies

Favourite: Magic Candies

Additional thoughts: I was really struggling to stay awake for these, but Magic Candies was first, so I saw the whole thing. It was really cute, but Yuck! also looked super cute. Maybe it would have been my favourite if I wasn’t trying to not fall asleep the whole time.

Winner: In the Shadow of Cypress

Best Live Action Short Film

Prediction: A Lien

Opinion: I’m Not a Robot

Favourite: I’m Not a Robot

Winner: I'm Not a Robot

Best Documentary Short Film

Prediction: Incident

Opinion: I Am Ready, Warden

Favourite: Death By Numbers

Additional thoughts: For whatever reason, this is my favourite category. Maybe it’s because it was the only category that I saw all of the nominees last year, and I feel some allegiance towards it. This year there were only two types of films nominated: wrongful death, and music.

Winner: The Only Girl in the Orchestra

Best Costume Design

Prediction: Wicked

Opinion: Wicked

Favourite: Wicked

Winner: Wicked

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Prediction: The Substance

Opinion: The Substance

Favourite: The Substance

Winner: The Substance

Best Visual Effects

Prediction: Dune: Part Two

Opinion: Dune: Part Two

Favourite: Wicked

Winner: Dune: Part Two

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

Prediction: Anora

Opinion: A Real Pain

Favourite: A Real Pain

Winner: Anora

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Prediction: Conclave

Opinion: Sing Sing

Favourite: Sing Sing

Winner: Conclave

Happy Oscars everyone!

Also, here's the Google Sheet I used to keep track of all the movies:

Update: this is how I did on my official predictions sheet:

I was hoping to do better than 65%, but at least I got 15/23 knowing that I studied my best. I was really happy to see Anora get the recognition it deserved, and was satisfied with the outcomes of most of the awards. With that said, Adrian Brody should have just taken his Oscar, said, "thank you" really quickly, and left instead of making us listen to him go on and on about nothing before remembering to mention that antisemitism is bad. Also, I know swallowing gum is not ideal, but it's probably better than throwing it at your girlfriend in front of millions of viewers.