2020 Oscars Predictions

Well, it’s 92nd Academy Awards nominations announcement day, and my Twitter feed suuuuure is talking ‘bout it. And the talk is understandable, as the 2020 Oscars ceremony is shaping up to have some winners that aren’t quite my, or others’, favorites. But this is a tale as old as time, and I should be able to provide more insight once I’ve seen a larger swath of the nominees. That won’t stop me from making predictions for the winners of the event, held on February 9 (without a host again this year). Because as much as we feel some type a way about the Oscars nominations, they stand, as they always have for me, as a reflection of the film industry, warts and all. Once again, this year, a lot of those warts are snubs of women and people of color (19 of 20 acting nominees were white); like, how LITTLE WOMEN is nominated for Best Picture but Greta Gerwig is not nominated for Best Director. Or how Jennifer Lopez misses out on a Best Actress nom. You could always go on with such examples. But in the case of the 92nd Academy Awards, the collective membership decided to honor JOKER instead, which led the nominations with 11. I’ll bold what I think will end up taking home the awards, not what I actually think is the best. We’ll see how wrong I am in just under a month!

Best Picture

• FORD V FERRARI
• THE IRISHMAN
• JOJO RABBIT
• JOKER
• LITTLE WOMEN
• MARRIAGE STORY
• 1917
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
• PARASITE

Best Director

• Martin Scorsese — THE IRISHMAN
• Todd Phillips — JOKER
• Sam Mendes — 1917
• Quentin Tarantino — ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
• Bong Joon-ho — PARASITE

Best Actor

• Antonio Banderas — PAIN AND GLORY
• Leonardo DiCaprio — ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
• Adam Driver — MARRIAGE STORY
• Joaquin Phoenix — JOKER
• Jonathan Pryce — THE TWO POPES

Best Actress

• Cynthia Erivo — HARRIET
• Scarlett Johansson — MARRIAGE STORY
• Saoirse Ronan — LITTLE WOMEN
• Charlize Theron — BOMBSHELL
• Renée Zellweger — JUDY

Best Supporting Actor

• Tom Hanks — A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
• Anthony Hopkins — THE TWO POPES
• Al Pacino — THE IRISHMAN
• Joe Pesci — THE IRISHMAN
• Brad Pitt — ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

Best Supporting Actress

• Kathy Bates — RICHARD JEWELL
• Laura Dern — MARRIAGE STORY
• Scarlett Johansson — JOJO RABBIT
• Florence Pugh — LITTLE WOMEN
• Margot Robbie — BOMBSHELL

Best Original Screenplay

• KNIVES OUT — Rian Johnson
• MARRIAGE STORY — Noah Baumbach
• 1917 — Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD — Quentin Tarantino
• PARASITE — Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won

Best Adapted Screenplay

• THE IRISHMAN — Steven Zaillian
• JOJO RABBIT — Taika Waititi
• JOKER — Todd Phillips and Scott Silver
• LITTLE WOMEN — Greta Gerwig
• THE TWO POPES — Anthony McCarten

Best Animated Feature Film

• HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD — Dean DeBlois
• I LOST MY BODY — Jérémy Clapin
• KLAUS — Sergio Pablos
• MISSING LINK — Chris Butler
• TOY STORY 4 — Josh Cooley

Best International Feature Film

• CORPUS CHRISTI — Jan Komasa
• HONEYLAND — Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov
• LES MISÉRABLES — Ladj Ly
• PAIN AND GLORY — Pedro Almodóvar
• PARASITE — Bong Joon-ho

Best Documentary Feature

• AMERICAN FACTORY — Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• THE CAVE — Feras Fayyad
• THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY — Petra Costa
• FOR SAMA — Waad Al-Kateab
• HONEYLAND — Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov

Best Documentary Short Subject

• IN THE ABSENCE — Yi Seung-Jun
• LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL ) — Carol Dysinger
• LIFE OVERTAKES ME — Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas
• ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN — Sami Khan and Smriti Mundhra
• WALK RUN CHA-CHA — Laura Nix

Best Live Action Short Film

• BROTHERHOOD — Meryam Joobeur
• NEFTA FOOTBALL CLUB — Yves Piat
• THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW — Marshall Curry
• SARIA — Bryan Buckley
• A SISTER — Delphine Girard

Best Animated Short Film

• DCERA — Daria Kashcheeva
• HAIR LOVE — Matthew A. Cherry
• KITBULL — Rosana Sullivan
• MEMORABLE — Bruno Collet
• SISTER — Siqi Song

Best Original Score

• JOKER — Hildur Guðnadóttir
• LITTLE WOMEN — Alexandre Desplat
• MARRIAGE STORY — Randy Newman
• 1917 — Thomas Newman
• STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER — John Williams

Best Original Song

• “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” (TOY STORY 4) — Randy Newman
• “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again (ROCKETMAN) — Elton John and Bernie Taupin
• “I’m Standing with You” (BREAKTHROUGH) — Diane Warren
• “Into the Unknown” (FROZEN II) — Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
• “Stand Up” (HARRIET) — Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo

Best Sound Editing

• FORD V FERRARI — Donald Sylvester
• JOKER — Alan Robert Murray
• 1917 — Oliver Tarney and Rachael Tate
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD — Wylie Stateman
• STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER — Matthew Wood and David Acord

Best Sound Mixing

• AD ASTRA — Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, and Mark Ulano
• FORD V FERRARI — Paul Massey, David Giammarco, and Steven A. Morrow
• JOKER — Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, and Tod Maitland
• 1917 — Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD — Michael Minkler, Christian P. Pinkler, and Mark Ulano

Best Production Design

• THE IRISHMAN — Bob Shaw and Regina Graves
• JOJO RABBIT — Ra Vincent and Nora Sopková
• 1917 — Dennis Gassner and Lee Sandales
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD — Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh
• PARASITE — Lee Ha-joon and Cho Won-woo

Best Cinematography

• THE IRISHMAN — Rodrigo Prieto
• JOKER — Lawrence Sher
• THE LIGHTHOUSE — Jarin Blaschke
• 1917 — Roger Deakins
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD — Robert Richardson

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• BOMBSHELL — Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan, and Vivian Baker
• JOKER — Nicki Ledermann and Kay Georgiou
• JUDY — Jeremy Woodhead
• MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL — Paul Gooch, Arjen Tuiten, and David White
• 1917 — Naomi Donne, Tristan Versluis, and Rebecca Cole

Best Costume Design

• THE IRISHMAN — Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson
• JOJO RABBIT — Mayes C. Rubeo
• JOKER — Mark Bridges
• LITTLE WOMEN — Jacqueline Durran
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD — Arianne Phillips

Best Film Editing

• FORD V FERRARI — Andrew Buckland and Michael McCusker
• THE IRISHMAN — Thelma Schoonmaker
• JOJO RABBIT — Tom Eagles
• JOKER — Jeff Groth
• PARASITE — Yang Jin-mo

Best Visual Effects

• AVENGERS: ENDGAME — Dan DeLeeuw, Matt Aitken, Russell Earl, and Dan Sudick
• THE IRISHMAN — Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, and Nelson Sepulveda
• THE LION KING — Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones, and Elliot Newman
• 1917 — Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, and Dominic Tuohy
• STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER — Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, and Dominic Tuohy

Across 24 categories, my predictions find the winningest movie(s) to be JOKER and 1917 in a tie for four. Believe me, I’m not super happy about that. Here’s hoping I’m proven wrong!