It’s every cinephile’s favorite time of the year: awards season. With the Academy Awards fast approaching, I wrangled up my predictions based on other awards this season and who I personally hope will take home the Oscar. Three out of four of the major awards shows have already taken place, with one just a few days ago. These are the BAFTAs, SAG Actor Awards, and the Golden Globes. Usually the Academy Awards are able to be predicted based on who wins these other three awards, so let’s take a look.
The current awards season princess, Jessie Buckley, has so far taken home all three awards for Best Actress, with an almost guarantee that she will bring home the Oscar for Best Actress as well. Her co-star, Paul Mescal though, was nominated for all three of these awards in Best Supporting Actor, but with a performance opposite Buckley’s, Mescal was completely overlooked by the Academy. Hamnet itself is nominated by the academy and has been nominated for every other award and Best Picture. It took home the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama, but that’s it so far. I don’t have high hopes that it will win for Best Picture at the Oscar’s but at least it’ll take one trophy home for Buckley’s stellar performance.
Another awards season baby, Sinners, has been nominated for the most Academy Awards in Oscar’s history. The only major recognition it had gotten so far though, is from the Actor Awards where Sinners won for Cast in a Motion Picture and Michael B. Jordan took home the award for Male Actor in a Leading Role. Aside from the actors, Sinners has won big for score at both the BAFTAs and Golden Globes, with a prediction for another take home at the Oscar’s. An underrated performance that was thankfully recognized by the BAFTAs was Wunmi Mosaku for Supporting Actress. She is also nominated in the Supporting Actress category at the Academy Awards but I don’t think she will bring it home.
Speaking of the Supporting Actress category, this is possibly the second easiest predicted category – next to Best Actress. My prediction is Teyana Taylor. She has won, so far, only the Golden Globe, but there is a feeling inside of me that thinks the Academy will favor One Battle After Another this season. Taylor’s performance was great, but best in this category? I’m not so sure about that. Amy Madigan from Weapons has also been highly favored this season, winning both the Actors Award and Critics Choice. While the Critics Choice technically isn’t one of the big four awards for the season, it is still highly credited and plays into Oscar’s predictions. I am personally rooting for Mosaku to win the Oscar, but I doubt this will happen.
Let’s talk about two of the biggest contenders this season – One Battle After Another and Marty Supreme. My prediction is One Battle takes home the win for Best Picture and Timothee Chalamet wins for Best Actor. Shockingly, Leonardo Dicaprio hasn’t won anything this season, but Chalamet has won the Golden Globe and Critics Choice. But then we face the question of “Will Jacob Elordi take home an Academy Award before Chalamet?”
Elordi, who earned his fame through his role in The Kissing Booth, played the Monster in Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein this past year. Elordi is nominated in the Supporting Actor category and has so far only won at the Critics Choice, but some people are predicting a favorable win for Elordi, but not so much for Chalamet. Both male actor categories are overall hard to predict, though, because of all the strong performances within them. I think Sean Penn will win for Supporting Actor because of his win at both the Actor Awards and the BAFTAs.
Another major category – Best Director – will either be won by Paul Thomas Anderson or Ryan Coogler. Though I wish it would be Chloe Zhao – second female director to be nominated twice at the Oscar’s – that would win Best Director, we all know that the Academy isn’t the “wokest.”
All will be determined in two weeks, when the Oscars air and every movie fan is sitting on their couch in anticipation. I will hopefully not be working and have to slickly check my phone every ten minutes for the winners. This season’s line up is phenomenal, so grab your remote and themed Oscar’s platter and place your bets! The Olympics may have ended but it’s time to determine who will take home the gold for movies.