After a longer-than-usual wait thanks to the Winter Olympics, Hollywood's biggest night is roughly 48 hours away. Here are the people and films I expect to walk away with Oscar gold this year.
Best Picture:
Nominees:
Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
And the Winner is...: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
For the second straight year, I don't think this category is the stone cold lock its being perceived to be. Overall Oscar nom leader The Shape of Water has gained a pretty substantial wave of momentum over the past few weeks and there's also an outside chance that the younger and more diverse group of newly-minted Academy members might want to let their impact be known right away by voting for either Lady Bird or Get Out. However, I'm still going to give the slight edge to Three Billboards because its not as inherently strange as The Shape of Water or mainstream-friendly as Lady Bird and Get Out plus its won every single top honor its been nominated for thus far.
For the second straight year, I don't think this category is the stone cold lock its being perceived to be. Overall Oscar nom leader The Shape of Water has gained a pretty substantial wave of momentum over the past few weeks and there's also an outside chance that the younger and more diverse group of newly-minted Academy members might want to let their impact be known right away by voting for either Lady Bird or Get Out. However, I'm still going to give the slight edge to Three Billboards because its not as inherently strange as The Shape of Water or mainstream-friendly as Lady Bird and Get Out plus its won every single top honor its been nominated for thus far.
Best Actor:
Nominees:
Timothee Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name)
Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread)
Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out)
Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)
Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.)
And the Winner is...: Gary Oldman
This has been a lock since the trailer for Darkest Hour came out last summer. A beloved veteran actor successfully bringing an iconic historical figure to life on the big screen is a foolproof recipe for earning a gold statue, especially in a field that's as thin as this one.
This has been a lock since the trailer for Darkest Hour came out last summer. A beloved veteran actor successfully bringing an iconic historical figure to life on the big screen is a foolproof recipe for earning a gold statue, especially in a field that's as thin as this one.
Best Actress:
Nominees:
Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water)
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Margot Robbie (I, Tonya)
Saiorse Ronan (Lady Bird)
Meryl Streep (The Post)
And the Winner is....: Frances McDormand
Out of all the acting categories, I feel like this one easily has the most upset potential. Hawkins pulled off one of 2017's most challenging roles as a mute woman in The Shape of Water while Robbie and Ronan turned in performances that are widely considered to be the best of their respective careers to-date. However, McDormand is an industry icon who hasn't headlined a film in nearly a decade and her peers will more than likely want to reward her most acclaimed piece of acting since at least Almost Famous.
Out of all the acting categories, I feel like this one easily has the most upset potential. Hawkins pulled off one of 2017's most challenging roles as a mute woman in The Shape of Water while Robbie and Ronan turned in performances that are widely considered to be the best of their respective careers to-date. However, McDormand is an industry icon who hasn't headlined a film in nearly a decade and her peers will more than likely want to reward her most acclaimed piece of acting since at least Almost Famous.
Best Supporting Actor:
Nominees:
Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project)
Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water)
Christopher Plummer (All the Money in the World)
Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)And the Winner is..... Sam Rockwell
Even with the intense blowback that his character's story arc has received from some audiences and critics since the beginning of awards season, Rockwell is in prime position to win his first Oscar. Like Oldman, Rockwell is the type of well-respected yet underappreciated actor that the Academy loves to reward and his role is significantly showier than any of the other nominees in this category.
Best Supporting Actress:
Mary J. Blige (Mudbound)
Allison Janney (I, Tonya)
Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread)
Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird)
Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water)
And the Winner is....: Allison Janney
Best Supporting Actor/Actress Oscars are pretty frequently given to actors that portray memorable antagonists (Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds, J.K. Simmons in Whiplash, Mo'Nique in Precious) and Janney should become the latest member of this club come Sunday night. Janney's gripping turn as Tonya Harding's abusive alcoholic mother has earned her a large collection of awards over the past couple months and there's no reason to believe that reign of dominance is going to end on Oscar night.
Best Director:
Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread)
Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water)
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk)
Jordan Peele (Get Out)
And the Winner is....: Guillermo del Toro
There's a contingent of people out there that believe Greta Gerwig is going to pull off the upset, but as tight as her direction was, Lady Bird seems like too straightforward of a film in terms of setting, scale, etc. to win an award like this. del Toro helmed a beautiful, grandiose visual feast that made cinephiles swoon and I would be absolutely stunned if anyone else walked away with this award.
Other categories:
Best Animated Feature Film: Coco
Best Foreign Language Feature Film: A Fantastic Woman
Best Documentary Feature: Last Man in Aleppo
Best Live Action Short Film: DeKalb Elementary
Best Animated Short Film: Dear Basketball
Best Documentary Short Subject: Heroin(e)
Best Original Screenplay: Lady Bird
Best Adapted Screenplay: Call Me by Your Name
Best Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049
Best Original Score: Phantom Thread
Best Production Design: The Shape of Water
Best Original Song: Mudbound
Best Sound Editing: Dunkirk
Best Sound Mixing: Dunkirk
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Darkest Hour
Best Costume Design: Phantom Thread
Best Film Editing: Baby Driver
Best Visual Effects: Blade Runner 2049
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