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Oscar 2020: Who Will Win?

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2020 Oscars Predictions and Preview


I was not planning on making Oscar predictions this year because I'm in London for the semester and I have better things to do. But I'm doing laundry and have some time to kill, so I figured I'd give it a shot. While I have not been following awards season as closely this year as in past ones, I did get the closest to it than I've ever been before when I had the opportunity to be in the red carpet viewing area for the BAFTAs last weekend. What a thrill it was seeing all of this year's big players maneuver through the crowded carpet and pose for photos. Renee Zellweger was there, as was Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie, Bong Joon Ho, Quentin Tarantino, Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Saorise Ronan, Florence Pugh, Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach, Laura Dern, Al Pacino and Joaquin Phoenix, all of whom are also Oscar nominees. 

 As for what's going to happen this Sunday, I'm not anticipating many surprises. For instance, the acting categories are all pretty much sewn up at this point. It's going to be Laura Dern, Brad Pitt, Renee Zellweger and Joaquin Phoenix, not much else to say about that. As boring as their season-long sweeps have been, they aren't a bad group of winners. Laura Dern deserves an Oscar, Brad Pitt was great even if he's not a supporting actor, and it's nice that Renee will now have an Oscar that's not for her worst performance, so that's nice. As for the other major categories, I expect them to be dominated by two movies that, bizarrely, didn't get any acting nominations: 1917 and Parasite. The Best Picture race is really down to those two films.

 I have a feeling this year will be another where Best Picture and Best Director go to different movies, which has been historically rare but much more common in the last few years, since the voting system for Best Picture changed to a preferential balloting method. If you don't know what that is, look it up because I'm not explaining it again. Anyway, I think Parasite will get Best Picture, with Sam Mendes taking Best Director for his technical accomplishment that is 1917. This outcome would be interesting because never in the 91 years of Oscar history has Best Picture gone to a movie that's not in the English language. But that's a streak just waiting to be broken and this year seems as good as any. Or, the outcome could be 1917 taking Best Picture and Director going to Bong Joon Ho. That also seems possible. 

Best Picture: Parasite

Best Director: Sam Mendes, 1917

Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker

Best Actress: Renee Zellweger, Judy

Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Best Adapted Screenplay: Little Women 

Best Original Screenplay: Parasite

Best Cinematography: 1917

Best Costume Design: Little Women

Best Film Editing: Ford v. Ferrari

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Bombshell

Best Production Design: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Best Original Score: Joker

Best Original Song: "I'm Standing with You," Breakthrough

Best Sound Editing: 1917

Best Sound Mixing: 1917

Best Visual Effects: 1917

Best Animated Feature: Klaus

Best Documentary Feature: Honeyland

Best Foreign-Language Film: Parasite

Best Animated Short: Hair Love

Best Documentary Short: St. Louis Superman

Best Live Action Short: The Neighbors' Window

The Oscars air this Sunday on ABC.  
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