Academy Award Nomination Predictions

by Philip Price
With the Golden Globes now out of the way and the winners more or less settled as to who might be primed for Oscar glory from such wins it is a perfect time to predict who the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences will honor with nominations this Thursday. Yes, nominations for the 88th annual Academy Awards will be announced this Thursday, January 14th at 7:30 a.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater and we are here today to simply predict who might fall into the major categories. While I certainly plan to post my predictions for who I think might win in these respective categories prior to the awards ceremony on February 28th, that is not the competition we will be debating today. Today, it is more about which nine or 10 movies will make the cut in the best picture category, will Michael Keaton get a best actor nom or will he possibly compete against Mark Ruffalo in the supporting actor category for “Spotlight” and so on and so forth. There is a lot of strong competition going on this year the Golden Globe winners highlighted the potential of both “The Revenant” and “The Martian” while previous front-runners, “Spotlight” and “The Big Short” were shut out. That doesn't mean too much when compared to where the Oscars will take things (though I think Brie Larson's win for “Room” and Sylvester Stallone's win for “Creed” both bode well for their Oscar chances), but the more interesting races will be that of if the Picture/Director categories will be a split or if Alejandro González Iñárritu actually stands a chance of repeating his best picture/best director win from last year. It is easier to predict the acting categories based on Globe wins - I could easily see all four of the drama winners repeating at the Oscars next month, but where things get interesting are in the more technical categories as well as the biggest award of the night, best picture. Enough about the dynamics of the possibilities though, let us get on with the predictions...

While there are of course a number of other categories that I don't touch on here such as costume design, make-up and hairstyling, production design, original song, sound editing and mixing, visual effects as well as documentary feature and the short films categories these are my predictions for what are considered more of the major awards. With that said, these aforementioned categories are where the likes of “Mad Max: Fury Road” will likely flourish sans original song which will undoubtedly go to Sam Smith for his “SPECTRE” tune despite the fact I'm still rooting for "See You Again," because dammit if “Furious 7” doesn't deserve SOMETHING.
 
Best Picture
Spotlight
The Revenant
Carol
Room
Brooklyn
The Big Short
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
45 Years

Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant)
Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)
George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Ridley Scott (The Martian)
Todd Haynes (Carol)
 
Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)
Matt Damon (The Martian)
Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)
Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)
Steve Carell (The Big Short)
 
Best Supporting Actor
Sylvester Stallone (Creed)
Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)
Michael Keaton (Spotlight)
Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)
Paul Dano (Love & Mercy)
 
Best Actress
Brie Larson (Room)
Cate Blanchett (Carol)
Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)
Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)
Jennifer Lawrence (Joy)
 
Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)
Rooney Mara (Carol)
Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)
Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)
Rachel McAdams (Spotlight)
 
Best Animated Feature
Inside Out
Anomalisa
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun the Sheep Movie
When Marnie Was There
 
Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant)
John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Dariusz Wolski (The Martian)
Edward Lachman (Carol)
Roger Deakins (Sicario)
 
Best Adapted Screenplay
Aaron Sorkin (Steve Jobs)
Phyllis Nagy (Carol)
Emma Donoghue (Room)
Nick Hornby (Brooklyn)
Adam McKay & Charles Randolph (The Big Short)
 
Best Original Screenplay
Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer (Spotlight)
Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight)
Meg LeFauve (Inside Out)
Matt Charman, Joel & Ethan Coen (Bridge of Spies)
Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton)
 
Film Editing
Tom McArdle (Spotlight)
Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Hank Corwin (The Big Short)
Stephen Mirrione (The Revenant)
Pietro Scalia (The Martian)
 
Best Original Score
Ennio Morricone (The Hateful Eight)
John Williams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
Michael Giacchino (Inside Out)
Howard Shore (Spotlight)
Junkie XL (Mad Max: Fury Road)

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