Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Director: Bong Joon Ho
Unanimous winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the director looks likely to pick up a host of critics awards en route to the Oscars, where he stands a decent chance of being the first South Korean nominated in the category. It’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t think Parasite is a work of genius. The movie mutates from one thing into another almost instantaneously. Thanks to a mid-film twist, the carefully built perspective of a poor family worming their way into a rich one’s is thrown completely out of order.
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Director: Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino has never won an Oscar for Best Director. That’s something you have to take into account when looking at the field for this year’s Academy Awards. He’s won twice for screenwriting, but the man who (like it or not) is probably the quintessential director of this era, however you want to define that, has never been honored for directing. Deserving as he may be, he does have competition. There are some dudes — it’s always dudes, isn’t it? — named Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood who might have something to say about his ascension to the front of this race though.
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Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 4
Sorry Frozen, but Toy Story 4 has set the bar this season. It exceeded expectations and broke the franchise box office record as well. Pixar upped its animation (from the porcelain shepherdess to the complex antique shop), and delivered a bittersweet finale that was even more tear-inducing than its predecessor.
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 4
In a year where sequels were nearly all down from their previous installments, only this massively popular Toy Story entry managed to out-gross its predecessors. But its $433.7 million success was no surprise considering the strength of both the animation and storytelling. Pixar proved there was definitely one more story to tell with Woody’s (Tom Hanks) existential journey with Bo Peep (Annie Potts) and Forky (Tony Hale) about change, growth, and happiness.
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Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature: Knock Down the House
The ninth of November 2016 was a transformative day for many Americans. The day after the election that sent Donald Trump to the White House spurred new personal resolve from coast to coast. For a new generation of political challengers, this was the road-to-Damascus moment that compelled them to take action and launch a campaign. And for Rachel Lears, this was her call to capture it all.
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature: Knock Down the House
The film following four female candidates for telling the story of a ‘historic moment’, director Rachel Lears followed four female Democrats — including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, during the 2018 midterms. Congress in 2018 struck gold when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez happened to not only win, but quickly become one of the most famous and magnetic young forces in American politics. A blue-state crowd-pleaser par excellence, it has picked up audience awards at Sundance.
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Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Costume Design: Ruth Carter for Dolemite Is My Name
Black Panther Oscar winner Ruth Carter creates the flamboyant urban costumes for Dolemite Is My Name, the comedy biopic starring Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore — the comedian-turned blaxploitation star, who required more than three dozen looks for his multi-faceted persona including a signature power blue suit. Carter explains:
“This was an opportunity to help Eddie Murphy realize a dream of 16 years. As an artist Eddie is very serious and always produces something magical. We made clear distinctions between Moore, who was a simpler dresser, and Dolemite who was curated and tailored. I was able to mix textures and patterns and colors. I had a lot of fun with Dolemite.”
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Costume Design: Arianne Phillips for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the early Oscar front-runner for Best Costume Design, with Arianne Phillips creating contrasting iconic looks (circa 1969) for Leonardo DiCaprio’s has-been actor, Brad Pitt’s rugged stunt man, and Margot Robbie’s angelic Sharon Tate. It’s turtlenecks and leather for DiCaprio, and Hawaiian shirts and denim for Pitt. She chose yellow hot pants and go-go boots for Robbie, among other vintage looks.
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Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins for 1917
It took Roger Deakins 14 tries to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography. After suffering 13 losses over 21 years, he finally struck gold with Blade Runner 2049. Will he have to wait another couple of decades for his next victory — in another 21 years he’ll be 91 years old — or will he just keep winning? Our early odds for Best Cinematography point to the latter. He’s the early front-runner for 1917, which reunites him with Skyfall director Sam Mendes to tell the story of a race-against-time mission to save thousands of soldiers from an ambush during World War I.
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Cinematography: Robert Richardson for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
The cinematography competition is wide-open this year, with period movies dominating the race. For Richardson, the challenge was finding the right look for depicting 1969 at the end of the golden age and the rise of the counter culture in Hollywood. He achieved high color saturation with hints of blue and deeper skin tones, and pushed the grain for a crisp look. In that way, he conveyed a smooth quality of LA for this intersection of fiction and reality.
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Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Actress In A Supporting Role: Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers
Right now, I’d wager Dern’s closest competitor is Lopez — which would be a different kind of coronation. Lopez has rarely been given a script as meaty as Hustlers, and an Oscar would be an affirmation of her movie star power. But old prejudices might seep in, and the Academy might scoff at the Gigli of it all. Or, her 2020 Super Bowl performance could convince voters that she’s one of the hardest-working women in show business who absolutely deserves this honor.
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Actress In A Supporting Role: Laura Dern for Marriage Story
In Marriage Story, Laura Dern is Nora — a fearless, high-powered divorce lawyer who coaches Scarlett Johansson’s Nicole through her separation from her husband (Adam Driver) with gusto. The two-time nominee (and Academy Board member) owns every scene she’s in, despite the fact that Nora is a true supporting role. At the Toronto International Film Festival premiere, one of her monologues had the audience bursting out in applause mid-film. Dern rewrites the possibly sexist role of the ball-busting attorney into something that’s far more comfortable than a stereotype.
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Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Actor In A Supporting Role: Al Pacino for The Irishman
Pacino is one of the most accomplished actors of all-time, but even his biggest fans would have to admit some of his recent choices have been… suspect. It appeared his glory days were well behind him, but Pacino’s getting cinephiles excited again with his turn as Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman. Collaborating with Martin Scorsese for the first time in his illustrious career, Pacino was a clear standout and did some of his best work in years.
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Actor In A Supporting Role: Brad Pitt for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood
Pitt actually has one Oscar on his mantle, since he was a producer on the Best Picture-winning 12 Years a Slave, but he’s never won for his acting. Playing stuntman Cliff Booth, Pitt earned arguably the best reviews of his career. He slid effortlessly into the role, and was the MVP of the film. Some felt he outshined Leonardo DiCaprio. Even with the influx of festival titles making waves in the fall, the buzz around Once Upon a Time in Hollywood never wavered, and it remains one of the strongest contenders of the year.
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Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Actress: Renee Zellweger for Judy
Will Renee win? At this point, it seems the likeliest of all possible Oscar outcomes. We have yet to see Saoirse Ronan in Little Women, Jodie Turner-Smith in Queen & Slim, or Charlize Theron in Bombshell. There are still plenty of unknown variables. But yes, at the moment, Zellweger seems to be the front-runner.
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Actress: Renee Zellweger for Judy
Lead actress is all about Renee. In Judy, the actress brings alive a pill-popping middle-aged Judy Garland while she engages in her last hurrah — a weeks-long engagement at a British nightclub in 1969 — months before she would die from an accidental overdose at age 47. The magic act that Ms. Renee has to pull off to make us believe we are watching a real-life showbiz legend (while performing her signature songs on stage) is quite something.
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Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Actor: Adam Driver for Marriage Story
Best Actor
Unlike Joker – a film that’s received almost universal praise – is Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, in which Adam Driver plays Charlie, a theater director in the midst of a divorce. While Baumbach’s film is remarkably evenhanded in the way it depicts the separation, Driver is astounding as a man coming to terms with his own failures as his life is ripped apart. There are showy moments where he explodes in anger, but a lot of what makes his work so great is how he portrays Charlie as a person becoming aware of his own loneliness and flaws.
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix for Joker
Phoenix’s win would be a long time coming. A nomination for Joker would be his fourth after recognition for his work in Gladiator, Walk The Line, and The Master. Playing Arthur Fleck — who eventually takes up the Joker mantle — marks another physical transformation for the actor, who lost weight to let his super-villain exist in a terrifying state of emaciation. But of course, dropping pounds isn’t exactly a mark of good acting, though the Academy has been confused regarding that point before.
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Who SHOULD Win Academy Award for Best Picture: Parasite
Bong Joon Ho’s dark comedy about a family of opportunists comes armed with a big fanbase (the Bong Hive), rave reviews and packed festival screenings. Already selected as the South Korean entry for the international film category at the Oscars, it looks poised to break into other major races, from Best Picture to Director. It’s already won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was second runner-up for the TIFF People’s Choice Award.
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Who WILL Win Academy Award for Best Picture: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Currently, the most talked-about movie of the year is also the most likely to take home the top prize at February’s ceremony: Quentin Tarantino’s epic Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Despite falling foul of some major critics — namely for its remarkable length and controversial treatment of a female character — Tarantino’s ninth film has been a critical and commercial smash hit, with huge box office figures to go with the rave reviews it has received. However, when it comes to Oscars unpredictability, nothing does it quite like Best Picture.
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