The nominations for the 95th-annual Academy Awards have been released, and the awards season is coming to a close. With a little over a month until the winners are announced, let’s take a look at the contenders, and likely winners, in the major categories.
The Best Picture category is crowded, with critical heavy hitters “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “Tár” and “The Banshees Of Inisherin” squaring off against billion-dollar box office juggernauts “Avatar: The Way Of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” The Academy seems to have an aversion to popular culture, choosing instead to highlight smaller arthouse films like “Coda” and “Nomadland” in recent years.
The nominee that most accurately fits that description is Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees Of Inisherin,” although McDonagh already has an Oscar and “Banshees” would be one of the darkest films to ever win the award. The clear frontrunner is “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a film with a rare combination of both critical praise and audience adoration. A win for Best Picture here seems logical, unless the academy chooses to zag.
The race for Best Actor seems to be trending towards a win for Brendan Fraser and his emotional comeback role in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” although bright performances by Austin Butler in “Elvis” and Colin Farrell in “The Banshees Of Inisherin” could still conceivably edge Fraser out of the spotlight.
Best Actress is a two-horse race, with Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh going head to head for their roles in“Tár” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” respectively.
Blanchett has won two Oscars in two different decades for her roles in “The Aviator” and “Blue Jasmine.” So narratively, giving Yeoh her first Oscar makes a lot of sense, however given the magnitude of Blanchett’s performance as Lydia Tár, a trio of golden statues seems almost inevitable.
The Best Director race is still largely up in the air and packed with massive names all vying for the top spot. Steven Spielberg’s “The Fablemans,” Todd Field’s “Tár,” Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees Of Inisherin” and Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle Of Sadness” are among four of the best directors working today, and they’re all likely to lose to Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the directorial duo behind “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
The Best Supporting Actor category continues to point towards a dominant night from our most nominated film, as Ke Huy Quan, also of “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” fame seems to be the clear frontrunner here. With both Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan from “The Banshees Of Inisherin” trailing behind him, likely splitting the vote and leading to an Oscar win for Quan.
Best Supporting Actress seems to be similarly locked up by Angela Bassett, for her role as Ramonda in Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” If Bassett wins, it would be her first Oscar, as well as the first time an actor has won an Academy Award for a role in a Marvel movie.
The Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast live on ABC on Sunday, March 12.
