Your Guide to This Year's Oscar Winner Predictions

It’s that time of year again, the Academy Awards are looming. And with this year’s awards ceremony comes more controversies. 2019's troubles have come from the lack of a presenter, after Kevin Hart stepped down, and the threat of cutting a few of the awards categories to the commercial breaks. Alas, the show must go on. Feel free to use this as a guide to decide which films to watch and which to miss out on—that way you can boast you’ve seen all the major Oscar contenders and impress your friends! So here go my Oscar winner predictions, across all feature film length categories.

Best Picture

Roma

Could this be the first year a Netflix foreign language film wins the coveted Best Picture category? Netflix are sure doing all they can to take this film over the finish line first.

Best Director

Spike Lee for BlacKKKlansman

It’s been a long time coming for Spike Lee. After all his contribution to cinema, this may be his time to shine. Will Alfonso Cuarón get in his way?

Best Lead Actress

Glenn Close for The Wife

The odd ball for this category would be Lady Gaga—after all, the Academy does love those celebrities that have real star power and presence. I think Glenn Close has this one safe and sound though.

Best Lead Actor

Christian Bale for Vice

Although Rami Malek won the SAG and BAFTA award for this category, the Academy does love when Christian Bale physically transforms himself for a role, so I'm going to take a left field swing and go with Bale.

Best Support Actress

Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk

Although I do love a bit of Rachel Weisz, I think it’s safe to say that Regina King has this one in the bag. After all, it was an emotional and heart-wrenching performance by King.

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali for Green Book

After his win for Moonlight two years ago, Mahershala has proven his acting chops, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s nominated next year as well. This guy is a serious force to be reckoned with.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Can You Ever Forgive Me? Written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty

Although BlacKKKlansman is hotly tipped to win this won, judging by the Screen Writers Guild Winner, I’m going to bet my money on Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Best Original Screenplay

The Favourite Written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara

The witty and humorous dialogue throughout this period piece has got to make this a Best Original Screenplay win—and one of my favourite films of 2018.

Best Cinematography

Alfonso Cuarón for Roma

Another thing the academy loves is films in black and white, and Roma satisfies this, and then some—a beautifully shot Mexican period piece.

Best Costume Design

Sandy Powell for The Favourite

Is there anything more fun for a costume designer than this period? It’s also a blessing if you want to win a lot of awards, just make sure you execute the wardrobe well, and The Favourite definitely has done that.

Best Film Editing

John Ottman for Bohemian Rhapsody

I’ve been debating between this and Vice, and I’ve made a call on the Queen biopic.

Best Makeup and Hair

Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe, and Patricia Dehaney for Vice

Although Rami Malek’s teeth in Bohemian Rhapsody have been the source of much discuss in relation to Hair and Makeup, it’s the transformation of Christian Bale in Vice that wins it for me.

Best Production Design

Fiona Crombie for The Favourite

You can’t beat the lavish sets of the 18th century. Like the costumes, they're an easy Oscar frontrunner.

Best Score

Nicholas Britell for If Beale Street Could Talk

I went to see this film recently in the cinema, and it really stood out from the all other film scores this year. It’s indicative of the music of the time, whilst also conveying the hard times and emotion of the situation.

Best Song

"Shallow" from A Star Is Born, Music and Lyrics by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, and Andrew Wyatt

I mean it’s obvious, duh?

Best Sound Editing

Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan for First Man

Although I did detest this film, you can’t argue that the sound editing wasn’t amazing.

Best Sound Mixing

Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin, and John Casali for Bohemian Rhapsody

For a film about the legendary band, Queen, the sound mixing better be top-notch, and it really does not disappoint!

Best Visual Effects

Dan DeLeeuw, Kelly Port, Russell Earl, and Dan Sudick for Avengers: Infinity War

If there’s something that Marvel films do well, it’s visual effects, with Avengers: Infinity War looking to nab this one, over the other Marvel contender this year, Black Panther.

Best Animated Feature

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

This film breathes fresh air into the Spider-Man series, and deserves an Oscar just for that.

Best Documentary Feature

RBG

With the recent release of On the Basis of Sex, the fictional counterpart to the Ruth Bader Ginsberg story, I think this could have given RBG a bit of momentum in the Oscar race. This would also serve them well in the terms of gender politics, and the Oscars is all about the image.

Best Foreign Language Film

Roma

Roma may well pick up both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language film—the first time ever in history. Fingers crossed the stars align for Sunday.