Gautam Anand
2018 was very different from other years when it comes to the Oscars race. While in most other years, we have a frontrunner by the month of December (sometimes earlier), this year things are still in flux. Here we are in January and still not sure which film is going to win the Best Picture. That certainly makes things interesting for the next few weeks.
If there is one film that has shown up consistently in all the guilds and critics awards, it is ‘Roma’. It has turned out to be a surprise frontrunner, if you want to call it that. I am also pretty sure it will lead the field with most number of Oscar nominations i.e. 10. A Star is Born’, which was considered a frontrunner till the HFPA decided to derail its train, is also going to rake an equal number of nominations. ‘The Favourite’ will closely follow them with 9 nominations. One of the films that fell of the grid, ‘First Man’, is expected to garner 8 nominations. If things had gone its way, it could have easily raked 11-12 nominations. Other films that are going to do well on the nominations day are ‘Black Panther’, ‘Marry Poppins Returns’, and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
Anyway, as you all know, we here at The Cinemaholic do our best to bring to you the most accurate Oscar predictions. (We can officially claim to be most accurate predictors on internet considering we have consistently and correctly predicted at least 85 nominees out of 106/107 in 21 main categories for the past three years — a feat no publication, other than us, can claim to make). In 2017, we broke all records by predicting 94 nominees correctly. Last year we predicted 87 nominees correctly — better than all Oscar experts out there. But each year is different. This year is particularly difficult.
With that said, take your time to go through the predictions of all the 21 categories (we don’t predict the 3 shorts categories). It is a long list and will need some time to go through one by one. You can also come back, after the nominations are announced, to check how many correct predictions we made. Oscar nominations announcement will happen on Tuesday, 22nd January.
Best Picture
BlacKkKlansman
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star is Born
Vice
Potential Surprises: First Man; Mary Poppins Returns; If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Potential Surprise: Adam McKay, Vice
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
Christian Bale, Vice
John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
Potential Surprise: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Best Actress
Glenn Close, The Wife
Lady Gaga, A Star is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Potential Surprise: Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins Returns
Best Supporting Actor
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Elliott, A Star is Born
Sam Rockwell, Vice
Potential Surprise: Timothee Chalamet, Beautiful Boy
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Vice
Claire Foy, First Man
Emma Stone, The Favorite
Rachel Weisz, The Favorite
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Potential Surprise: Margot Robbie, Mary Queen of Scots
Best Adapted Screenplay
BlacKkKlansman
Black Panther
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Star is Born
Potential Surprise: First Man
Best Original Screenplay
Eighth Grade
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
Vice
Potential Surprise: A Quiet Place
Best Cinematography
Cold War
The Favourite
First Man
Roma
A Star is Born
Potential Surprise: Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Film Editing
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Roma
A Star is Born
Vice
Potential Surprise: BlacKkKlansman
Best Costume Design
Bohemian Rhapsody
Black Panther
The Favourite
Mary Queen of Scots
Mary Poppins Returns
Potential Surprise: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Vice
Black Panther
Border
Potential Surprise: Mary Queen of Scots
Best Production Design
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
The Favourite
First Man
Roma
Mary Poppins Returns
Potential Surprise: Black Panther
Best Original Score
BlacKkKlansman
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins Returns
Potential Surprise: Black Panther
Best Original Song
“Shallow,” A Star is Born
“I’ll Fight,” RBG
“All the Stars,” Black Panther
“Trip A Little Light Fantastic,” Mary Poppins Returns
“Girl in the Movies”, Dumplin
Potential Surprise: “The Place Where Lost Things Go,” Mary Poppins Returns
Best Sound Editing
A Quiet Place
Black Panther
First Man
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Roma
Potential Surprise: Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Sound Mixing
A Quiet Place
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Roma
A Star is Born
Potential Surprise: Black Panther
Best Visual Effects
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
First Man
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Potential Surprise: Mary Poppins Returns
Best Animated Feature
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse
Potential Surprise: Early Man
Best Foreign Film
Shoplifters – Japan
Capernaum – Labanon
Roma – Mexico
Cold War – Poland
Burning – South Korea
Potential Surprise: Never Look Away – Germany
Best Documentary Feature
Won’t You be My Neighbor
Free Solo
RBG
Three Identical Strangers
Minding the Gap
Potential Surprise: Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Final Tally
Roma: 10 nominations
A Star is Born: 10 nominations
The Favourite: 9 nominations
First Man: 8 nominations
Black Panther: 7 nominations
Bohemian Rhapsody: 5 nominations
Read More: Best Picture Nomination Analysis
