It’s time to take a little break from horror so that I may once against do my list of my monthly Oscar predictions! I guess some people would consider predicting the Oscars to be a scary thing. Personally, I have fun doing it, even if my predictions often seem to be for naught. That said, I did manage to predict that Thomas Vinterberg would be nominated for Best Director last year so take that, haters.
Probably the biggest development this month is that I’ve lost all faith in Spielberg’s West Side Story. It’s just not getting the type of hype that I would expect from a Spielberg Oscar movie. In fact, it seems like everyone involved is in kind of a hurry to move on. So, for now, I’m dropping it from my predictions. While West Side Story goes, Dune has definitely established itself as a probable nominee. I think the only problem that Dune will have is the possibility of people saying, “We’ll just nominate the sequel instead.”
I’ve also added C’mon C’mon and Passing to my list of Best Picture nominees. This is almost totally due to their popularity with the Gothams. If the other critics groups don’t duplicate the love, they’ll probably get dropped from my predictions come January.
As always, keep in mind that I don’t claim to be an expert. The picture is a bit clearer but I don’t claim to have any inside information or anything like that. These are just my guesses, for better or worse. To see how my thinking has evolved, check out my predictions for March and April and May and June and July and August and September!
Best Picture
Belfast
C’mon C’mon
CODA
Dune
The Lost Daughter
Nightmare Alley
Passing
The Power of the Dog
Spencer
The Tragedy of MacBeth
Best Director
Kenneth Branagh for Belfast
Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog
Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Lost Daughter
Guillermo del Toro for Nightmare Alley
Denis Villeneuve for Dune
Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch in The Power of the Dog
Peter Dinklage in Cyrano
Jude Hill in Belfast
Will Smith in King Richard
Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of MacBeth
Best Actress
Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter
Penelope Cruz in Parallel Lives
Frances McDormand in The Tragedy of MacBeth
Kristen Stewart in Spencer
Best Supporting Actor
Willem DaFoe in Nightmare Alley
Jamie Dornan in Belfast
Ciaran Hinds in Belfast
Jason Isaacs in Mass
Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Power of the Dog
Best Supporting Actress
Jessie Buckley in The Lost Daughter
Dame Judi Dench in Belfast
Ann Dowd in Mass
Kirsten Dunst in The Power of the Dog
Marlee Matlin in CODA