The Oscars 2020 is nearly upon us. After months of deliberation over the films of 2019, its time for a bunch of old white men to decide which one is better than the rest of them (spoiler: it’s probably the war one).
Here’s our guide to the 92nd Academy Awards. After a brief rundown of the show’s presenters and performers, we take a look at the runners and riders in each category and make our predictions.
Fingers crossed for some surprises and upsets along the way…
Oscars Presenters
With no host this year, there is added pressure on the Academy to bring some big names out to present the awards. They’ve come through with Timothée Chalamet (snubbed for his performance in Little Women), Captain Marvel herself Brie Larson, 1917 lead George Mackay, Keanu Reeves, Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, James Corden, Will Ferrell, Zazie Beetz, Gal Gadot and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Also presenting will be last year’s winners in the acting categories, Olivia Colman, Rami Malek, Regina King and Mahershala Ali.
On top of this, Rebel Wilson, who made waves at the Baftas with jokes about diversity, Prince Andrew and Cats (in which she starred), is also on board to present. As will Spike Lee, Mulan star Utkarsh Ambudkar and Salma Hayek.
Oscars Performers
The most surprising name on the Oscars performances roster is… Billie Eilish. The young singer is everywhere at the moment, and, having just been confirmed to sing the James Bond song for No Time To Die, it seems likely that she’ll play the as-yet-untitled theme tune live for the first time.
On top of this, there will be performances from Elton John, Idina Menzel, Cynthia Erivo, Chrissy Metz and Randy Newman (all nominated for Best Original Song).
Our Oscars 2020 predictions:
Best Picture
Parasite
Bong Joon-Ho’s critically beloved tale of domestic disturbance has racked up an unprecedented six nominations and some insiders are tipping it to take home the big prize ahead of films from Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Taika Waititi, in part due to the director (and his translator, Sharon) charming the pants off everyone on the campaign trail. What a time to be alive.
Jojo Rabbit
Critics have been deeply, deeply apathetic about Taika Waititi’s film: one described it as Wes Anderson making The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. But the film won the all-important Toronto Film Festival People’s Choice Award, which is an exceptional gauge of Best Picture noms and sometimes of winners. As the Oscars did, last year, show an interest in being as interested in audience appreciation as critical lauding, Jojo Rabbit could continue this pattern.
Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie may have been somewhat divisive, but, in a year when there are no clear films expected to steamroll awards season, a big sweeping picture full of big names that takes a look at the movie industry itself – which the Academy tends to love – feels like a strong contender. Read our Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood review.
Marriage Story
Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, a tightly scripted, emotionally charged but deeply heartfelt dissection of divorce, is an outside bet for the Best Picture award, despite bagging nominations in several other categories. It’s now available on Netflix, so you’ll be able to assess its merits there.
© Niko Tavernise
Joker
With a whopping eleven nominations, Joker appears to be the most popular film at the Oscars this year. With Black Panther proving that a new, audience-engaged Oscars might be paying more interest to films born from the world of Marvel and DC, there’s a chance that Joker – just for the sheer buzz it has – could do one better and take home the most coveted prize of all. Read our Joker review.
© Wilson Webb
Little Women
It feels like it’s been a while since a legacy book adaptation got a chance at the Oscars: one could, if one wanted, argue Black Panther was one; 12 Years A Slave reimagined the autobiography of Solomon Northup and Les Miserables was nominated in 2012. Besides these, there haven’t been many nominees in recent years adapted off classic literature. The last one may just have been The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button in 2008. But a big star-studded reimagining of an iconic text in Western literature? Maybe Little Women, which has so much energy around it, could buck the trend.
The Irishman
Like a Michelin-starred tasting menu of all the greatest talents from the golden age of cinema, The Irishman has all the buzz to take home a slew of awards. Plus, the rise of streaming service movies continues to be a compelling narrative and this feels like a movie that stands Netflix in good stead to maybe win its first Best Picture Oscar.
1917
Sam Mendes’ cinematic retelling of a story his grandfather told him – about a messenger with a crucial, lifesaving message they must deliver to other soldiers in the First World War – has been a huge hit with the critics, and, after taking home the Best Drama award at the Golden Globes in January, it looks like a good bet for Best Picture.
Le Mans ’66 (Ford V Ferrari)
Biopics with big names have good pedigree at the Oscars. Le Mans ’66 doesn’t feel like it’ll shake up the establishment the way, say, Moonlight winning did, but it had all the elements to end up on the shortlist.
Who we think will win: 1917.
Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio for Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood
Leo really sank his teeth into the role of washed-up TV star Rick Dalton in Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. Playing Shakespearean and slapstick comedy in quick succession, it’s his most enjoyable performance since The Wolf Of Wall Street. It took six nominations to get him his first statue (for 2017’s The Revenant), let’s hope the Academy doesn’t leave him out in the cold for so long again.
Jonathan Pryce for The Two Popes
The Two Popes is exactly the kind of film that the Academy laps up: two legends of the screen playing political figures in a movie that pokes and prods at lofty topics without upsetting the status quo. Pryce is a dead ringer for Pope Francis, and he’s not half bad at acting, either, so he’s in with a good chance here.
Joaquin Phoenix for Joker
Chatter seems pretty focused on Joaquin Phoenix absolutely landing the Best Actor award for his role as the Joker in the eponymous DC film. With Heath Ledger proving it’s a rich seam to mine as a performer, this could be the chance Phoenix gets the attention he so richly deserves from the Academy after years of nominations.
Adam Driver for Marriage Story
No part of Noah Baumbach’s latest white-people-in-turmoil movie Marriage Story seems to be immune from Oscars buzz. Adam Driver’s performance as its male lead is among them and for good reason: he really loses himself in the dad who is being told he might not get to be a dad any more and even sings a bit of Sondheim for good measure. After he earned a nomination last year for BlackKklansman it could be nice to see him go from bridesmaid to bride.
Antonio Banderas for Pain And Glory
There’s always a thrill when an actor in a best foreign language nominee gets into the best acting categories: a reminder that good performances with subtitles are often erased from the main areas. Remember Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose? Or Emmanuelle Riva for Amour? Banderas is a more familiar face to the Academy than they were at the time (actually that might be doing Riva a disservice, but I think the point still stands) and some are hoping that his turn in Almodovar’s latest might help him take home his first Academy Award.
Who we think will win: Joaquin Phoenix.
Best Supporting Actor
Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood
Listen: we all love Hanks. People love Mr Rogers. This feels like a very charming option and there’s never anything wrong with predicting a bit of charm.
Brad Pitt for Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
There were audible gasps in the cinema when Brad Pitt took his shirt off in Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. The man is in his fifties, looking excellent and turning in some of the best performances of his career. It’s time he got his Oscar.
Anthony Hopkins for The Two Popes
A-Hop has surprisingly only won one Oscar before, for Hannibal Lecter in The Silence Of The Lambs. He’s excellent as per usual in The Two Popes, but he’ll do well to nudge out ferocious competition here.
Joe Pesci for The Irishman
Pesci re-emerged from a decades-long hibernation to turn in a very un-Pesci performance in The Irishman. Gone is the bulldog-like ferocity of his previous Scorsese roles and in its stead a quiet malice befitting of his age. When he won the same award in 1991 for Goodfellas, he gave a five-word acceptance speech: “It’s my privilege. Thank you.” We’d like to see it again.
Al Pacino for The Irishman
As the eldest member of the cast of The Irishman, 79-year-old Pacino deserves all of the praise for embodying Jimmy Hoffa with the vigour of a man 20 years his junior. He’s still got it.
Who we think will win: Brad Pitt for Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood.
Best Actress
Renée Zellweger for Judy
Zellweger’s return to the big leagues after Hollywood almost broke her is the kind of off-screen narrative the Academy loves. We know Zellweger is a talented actress and the chance for her to storm back into everyone’s lives as a woman who never truly got her own renaissance feels too good to be true.
Scarlett Johansson for Marriage Story
Marriage Story bagged a load of nominations and Scarlett Johansson is among the list of likely winners. Johansson has a lot of accolades to her name, but has never won an Oscar; there’s a nice narrative, in a way, to this maybe being her time to win. It’s a great performance too: her monologue in her lawyer’s office about all the little ways her relationship fell apart is beautifully realised. Then again, she’s up against Zellweger… The jury is out.
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Saoirse Ronan for Little Women
Ronan already has a lot of nominations under her belt for someone so young, so in a way it feels like this could be a good time to reward one of our most consistently brilliant young female actors.
Cynthia Erivo for Harriet
At the tender age of 33, Londoner Cynthia Erivo has not one, but two opportunities to bag the O to her prospective EGOT and become one of just 15 people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, a Tony and an Oscar (she is also nominated for the song “Stand Up” from the same film). She will do well to knock Zellweger off her perch, though…
Charlize Theron for Bombshell
In Bombshell, which documents how Fox News founder Roger Ailes was ousted from the company after a series of sexual harassment allegations emerged, Charlize Theron is wrapped up in prosthetics as Megyn Kelly. It’s the kind of wild decision and attention-grabbing performance that could make her stand out to Academy voters.
Who we think will win: Renée Zellweger.
Best Supporting Actress
Laura Dern for Marriage Story
Thanks in part to a moving speech about mothers in society, and in part thanks to her ability to play three different types of weaponised kindness at once, Laura Dern’s turn as a lawyer in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story feels like it’s destined for the win in this category. Besides, Dern’s return to our screens over the past few years feels so welcome and so deserved that I’d give her every possible reward if I could.
Florence Pugh for Little Women
It would be nice to see Pugh bag gold here: after a year of turning it out in every role she’s been given (after years of turning it out in every role she’s given) she deserves to be acknowledged by the powers that be. In Little Women, she brings a touch humanity to the typically detestable Amy March, which is no small feat.
Margot Robbie for Bombshell
After narrowly missing out on an award for her brilliant performance as disgraced ice skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya in 2018, Margot Robbie is clearly on the right track toward Oscar gold. But, with strong competition all round, it’s hard to see this one doing the job.
Scarlett Johansson for Jojo Rabbit
If she doesn’t cancel herself out by being nominated for two awards in one year, Scarlett Johansson could pull off an upset in this category. She is the standout performer in Jojo Rabbit as the rebellious, anti-fascist mother of the Hitler-loving protagonist.
Kathy Bates for Richard Jewell
A surprise addition to the nominees, Kathy Bates is unlikely to win this one for her role in Clint Eastwood’s biopic about a bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, but stranger things have happened.
Who we think will win: Laura Dern for Marriage Story.
Best Director
Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
Remarkably, Tarantino has yet to win the Oscar for best director. His love letter to Los Angeles in the 1960s could do the job for him. If not, he may have to settle for yet another Original Screenplay award…
Bong Joon-Ho for Parasite
Only two of the last ten winners in this category have been American-born, so Joon-Ho is not quite the outsider he might appear. The Academy seems intent on honouring Parasite, and if, as seems likely, it doesn’t take home the Best Picture award, Joon-Ho may follow in Roma’s footsteps and take home the Best Foreign Film and Best Director statues.
Martin Scorsese for The Irishman
Scorsese hit the campaign trail hard. He shook hands, kissed babies and stirred up no end of controversy with his lofty opinions about comic book films. The Irishman is a brilliant piece of work about old white men (the Academy is full of them), so don’t be surprised if Marty takes this one home.
Sam Mendes for 1917
The words “cinematic”, “feat” and “marvel” are all being thrown about a lot with regards to Sam Mendes’ 1917. It has been made to look like it was shot in one go, like Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, which won him this award. This is his to lose.
Todd Phillips for Joker
Please, for the love of God, no.
Who we think will win: Sam Mendes.
Foreign Picture
Parasite
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, finalist for the TFF People’s Choice Award and the top reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes for 2019 at the time of writing. Perhaps the strongest sure thing in the whole ceremony is a win for Parasite in this category.
Corpus Christi
A moving drama from Poland about a young man who decides to become a minister after finding God in a youth detention centre. It did well on the film festival circuit, but is unlikely to trouble Parasite.
Les Miserables
Ladj Ly’s French movie, chosen as their country’s nomination over Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, transplants the Victor Hugo classic to the Paris suburbs, inspired by riots there in 2005. It won the Jury Prize at Cannes, but it’s up against some very stiff competition.
Pain And Glory
Some have argued that Almodovar’s latest might earn Antonio Banderas an acting nom, but what seems set in stone is that this latest film from the Spanish director will get a nomination here.
Honeyland
This documentary about the last remaining beekeeper in a remote village in northern Macedonia was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival last year. It would be Macedonia’s first ever Oscar win in this category…
Who we think will win: Parasite
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