With the Oscars right around the corner, it’s only right to put my hat in the ring and make my predictions for this year and take an absolute shot in the dark to see who will be nominated for 2021’s top categories.  For this year’s predictions, I’ll be including up to 3 movies for each category. The first will be who I think will ultimately win the award. The second is my personal opinion of who I think should win. For this selection, I will only be picking films that I saw.  The final movie will be the extra nominee selection. Not a snub per say, but basically if the category had one more spot available, what film would I nominate. Once again these will only be films that I saw and they had to have had a realistic chance of being nominated in the first place.  Without further ado, here are my official 2020 Oscar predictions.

Best Picture

What Will Win: 1917

What Should Win: 1917

Extra Nominee: Waves

Best Director

Who Will Win: Sam Mendes (1917)

Who Should Win: Sam Mendes (1917)

Extra Nominee: Josh and Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems)

Best Actor

Who Will Win: Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Who Should Win: Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

Extra Nominee: Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems)

Best Actress

Who Will Win: Renee Zellweger (Judy)

Who Should Win: Renee Zellweger (Judy)

Extra Nominee: Awkwafina (The Farewell)

Best Supporting Actor

Who Will Win: Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Who Should Win: Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood)

Extra Nominee: Jamie Foxx (Just Mercy)

Best Supporting Actress

Who Will Win: Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Who Should Win: Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)

Extra Nominee: Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers)

Best Original Screenplay

Who Will Win: Bong Joon Ho, Jin Wan Han  (Parasite)

Who Should Win: Rian Johnson (Knives Out)

Extra Nominee: Ben Safdie, Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein (Uncut Gems)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Who Will Win: Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit)

Who Should Win: Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit)

Extra Nominee: Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham (Just Mercy)

Best Animated Feature

Who Will Win: Toy Story 4

Who Should Win: Toy Story 4

Extra Nominee: Abominable 

Best Production Design

Who Will Win: Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Who Should Win: Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Extra Nominee: Claire Kaufman (Little Women)

Best Cinematography

Who Will Win: Roger Deakins (1917)

Who Should Win: Roger Deakins (1917)

Extra Nominee: Kyung-Pyo Hong (Parasite)

Best Costume Design

Who Will Win: Arianne Phillips (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Who Should Win: Jacqueline Durran (Little Women)

Extra Nominee: Julian Day (Rocketman)

Best Film Editing

Who Will Win: Andrew Buckland, McCusker (Ford v Ferrari)

Who Should Win: Andrew Buckland, McCusker (Ford v Ferrari)

Extra Nominee: Ben Safdie, Ronald Bronstein (Uncut Gems)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Who Will Win: Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan, Vivian Baker (Bombshell)

Who Should Win: Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan, Vivian Baker (Bombshell)

Extra Nominee: Janine Rath, Heba Thorisdottir (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Best Sound Mixing

Who Will Win: Stuart Wilson, Scott Millan, Mark Taylor (1917)

Who Should Win: Stuart Wilson, Scott Millan, Mark Taylor (1917)

Extra Nominee: Tom Johnson, Juan Peralta, John Pritchett (Avengers: Endgame)

Best Sound Editing

Who Will WIn: Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate (1917)

Who Should Win: Alan Robert Murray (Joker)

Extra Nominee: Phillip Stockton, Eugene Gearty (The Irishman)

Best Visual Effects

Who Will Win: Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, Dominic Tuohy  (1917)

Who Should Win: Dan Deleeuw, Matt Aitken, Russell Earl, Dan Sudick (Avengers: Endgame)

Extra Nominee: Christopher Townsend, Daniel Sudick (Captain Marvel)

Best Original Score

Who Will Win: Hildur Gudnadottir (Joker)

Who Should Win: Thomas Newman (1917)

Extra Nominee: Daniel Pemberton (Motherless Brooklyn)

Best Original Song

What Will Win: I’m Gonna Love Me Again (Rocketman)

What Should Win: Into the Unknown (Frozen II)

Extra Nominee: Speechless (Aladdin)

Best Documentary Feature

What Will Win: American Factory

What Should Win: American Factory

Extra Nominee: The Biggest Little Farm

Best International Feature

What Will Win: Parasite

What Should Win: Parasite

Extra Nominee: N/A

Best Animated Short

What Will Win: Hair Love

What Should Win: Hair Love

Extra Nominee: N/A

Best Documentary Short

What Will Win: Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)

What Should Win: N/A

Extra Nominee: N/A

Best Live Action Short

What Will Win: Sometimes, I Think About Dying

What Should Win: N/A

Extra Nominee: N/A

Overall Totals (Who Will Win With at Least 2 wins)

1917: 6 wins

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: 3 wins

Joker: 2 wins

Parasite: 2 wins

Overall Totals (Who Should Win With at Least 2 wins)

1917: 6 wins

Joker: 2 wins

Jojo Rabbit: 2 wins

Little Women: 2 wins

Extra Nominations (Minimum 2 Extra)

Uncut Gems: 3 nominations

Just Mercy: 2 nominations

So there you have it.  Some of the smaller categories are always a bit of a crapshoot and there’s a very solid chance I am wrong in a lot of these categories, but at the end of the night, I believe 1917 will walk away with both the most wins, the biggest win of the night, and end up winning 6 of the 10 categories it is nominated for.  If I had my way, 1917 would end up the big winner of the night and Uncut Gems would be nominated for something, but I have no say so it’s just opinion at this point.  Now for the fun stuff. How many of next year’s Best Picture nominees can I get right 1 year in advance?  I’ll list my 10 below knowing there will probably only be 8 or 9, but I want to look back at this a year from now and either pat myself on the back for doing a good job or laugh at how wrong I was (probably the latter).  So, here we go. Time to announce my way-too-early 2021 Best Picture, Director, and Acting Predictions.

Best Picture

Macbeth

Let Them All Talk

Nightmare Alley

Good Morning, Midnight

West Side Story

The Last Duel

The Woman in the Window

The French Dispatch

Ammonite

The Last Thing He Wanted

Best Director

Joel Cohen (Macbeth)

Steven Soderbergh (Let Them All Talk)

Guillermo del Toro (Nightmare Alley)

George Clooney (Good Morning, Midnight)

Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

Best Actor

Denzel Washington (Macbeth)

Bradley Cooper (Nightmare Alley)

George Clooney (Good Morning, Midnight)

Ansel Elgort (West Side Story)

Adam Driver (The Last Duel)

Best Actress

Meryl Streep (Let Them All Talk)

Cate Blanchette (Nightmare Alley)

Rachel Zegler (West Side Story)

Amy Adams (The Last Thing He Wanted)

Kate Winslet (Ammonite)

Best Supporting Actor

Lucas Hedges (Let Them All Talk)

Matt Damon (The Last Duel)

Timothee Chalamet (The French Dispatch)

Willem Dafoe (The Last Thing He Wanted)

Robert Pattinson (Tenet)

Best Supporting Actress

Frances McDormand (Macbeth)

Felicity Jones (Good Morning, Midnight)

Saorise Ronan (Ammonite)

Abigail Breslin (Stillwater)

Octavia Spencer (The Witches)

And that’s a wrap.  Some of these seem like a pretty safe and other seem to be more on the unknown/stretch side, but hopefully all of them are at least competitive enough where if they don’t get nominated, at least they’ll be in contention.  Only time will tell to see how right these initial predictions will be.