The 96th Academy Awards are going down next Sunday night and that means it is time for another go-around of my woeful predictions. I don’t know that I’ve heard of many of these movies let alone seen them, so, with less basis in fact than most years, here’s my uneducated predictions for the non-acting awards.
Best Original Screenplay
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall
David Hemingson, The Holdovers
Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Maestro
Screenplay by Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, May December
Celine Song, Past Lives
I’ve seen a whopping two of these films, so I’m going to pick my favorite of the two, The Holdovers.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Tony McNamara, Poor Things
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
I’m assuming this will be the start of a big night for Nolan and Oppenheimer.
Best Animated Feature
The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Once again, I’ll go with the one I’ve seen.
Best Cinematography
Edward Lachman, El Conde
Rodrigo Prieto, Killers of the Flower Moon
Matthew Libatique, Maestro
Hoyte van Hoytema, Oppenheimer
Robbie Ryan, Poor Things
Seems like I’m going all in with the atomic bomb movie.
Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran, Barbie
Jacqueline West, Killers of the Flower Moon
Janty Yates and Dave Crossman, Napoleon
Ellen Mirojnick, Oppenheimer
Holly Waddington, Poor Things
This seems like as good a place as any for Barbie to get on the board.
98 different people starred in the 52 movies I saw last year (starring in being the first two named stars, a tradition dating back to the old Chicago Tribune TV guide which populated the early days of my database), and a whole five of them were in more than one film. Those five thespians are: