The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the nominees for its awards this Thursday, so I wanted to get my predictions in. Too many pots bubbling over to bother with any kind of discussion, but do pipe up in comments if you just have to hear my logic about any of these things in particular.
Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton
I am officially predicting eight nominees. If there there are up to ten nominees, I would predict them to be, in this order:
*Brooklyn
*Sicario
Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Adam McKay, The Big Short
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Ridley Scott, The Martian
Alt: Steven Spielberg, Bridge of Spies
Best Actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Alt: Steve Carrell, The Big Short
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Rooney Mara, Carol
Saorise Ronan, Brooklyn
Alt: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Alt: Michael Keaton, Spotlight
Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Alt: Rooney Mara, Carol
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short (Adam McKay and Charles Randolph)
Brooklyn (Nick Hornby)
Carol (Phyllis Nagy)
The Martian (Drew Goddard)
Steve Jobs (Aaron Sorkin)
Alt: Room (Emma Donoghue)
Best Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies (Matt Charman and Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino)
Inside Out (Josh Cooley, Pete Docter, & Meg LeFauve)
Spotlight (Tom McCarthy & Josh Singer)
Straight Outta Compton (Andrea Berloff, Jonathan Herman, S. Leigh Savidge, & Alan Wenkus)
Alt: Sicario (Taylor Sheridan)
Best Cinematography
Bridge of Spies (Janusz Kamiński)
Carol (Ed Lachman)
Mad Max: Fury Road (John Seale)
The Revenant (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Sicario (Roger Deakins)
Alt: The Hateful Eight (Robert Richardson)
Best Editing
The Big Short (Hank Corwin)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Margaret Sixel)
The Martian (Pietro Scalia)
The Revenant (Stephen Mirrione)
Spotlight (Tom McArdle)
Alt: Sicario (Joe Walker)
Best Costume Design
Brooklyn (Odile Dicks-Mireaux)
Carol (Sandy Powell)
Cinderella (Sandy Powell)
The Danish Girl (Paco Delgado)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Jenny Beavan)
Alt: Crimson Peak (Kate Hawley)
Best Production Design
Bridge of Spies (Adam Stockhausen / Rena DeAngelo, Bernhard Henrich)
Cinderella (Dante Ferretti / Casey Banwel, Francesca Lo Schiavo)
The Danish Girl (Eve Stewart / Michael Standish)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Colin Gibson / Katie Sharrock, Lisa Thompson)
The Martian (Arthur Max / Celia Bobak, Zoltan Horvath)
Alt: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Rick Carter, Darren Gilford / Lee Sandales)
Best Hair and Makeup
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
Black Mass
Mr. Holmes
Alt: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Original Score
Carol (Carter Burwell)
The Danish Girl (Alexandre Desplat)
The Hateful Eight (Ennio Morricone)
Sicario (Jóhann Jóhannson)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (John Williams)
Alt: Bridge of Spies (Thomas Newman)
Best Original Song
From Fifty Shades of Grey: “Love Me Like You Do”
From Furious 7: “See You Again”
From The Hunting Ground: “Til It Happens to You”
From I’ll See You in My Dreams: “I’ll See You in My Dreams”
From Youth: “Simple Song #3”
Alt: From Shaun the Sheep Movie: “Feels Like Summer”
Best Sound Mixing
The Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Straight Outta Compton
Alt: Bridge of Spies
Best Sound Editing
Bridge of Spies
The Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Alt: The Martian
Best Visual Effects
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Walk
Alt: Ex Machina
Best Foreign Language Film
Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia)
Labyrinth of Lies (Germany)
Mustang (France)
Son of Saul (Hungary)
A War (Denmark)
Alt: Viva (Ireland)
Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun the Sheep
Alt: Minions
Best Documentary
Amy
Cartel Land
We Come as Friends
What Happened, Miss Simone?
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom
Alt: Best of Enemies
Best Documentary Short
50 Feet from Syria
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Minerita
My Enemy, My Brother
The Testimony
Alt: Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
Best Animated Short
Bear Story (Historia de un oso)
If I Was God…
Sanjay’s Super Team
We Can’t Live Without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow
Alt: Prologue
Best Live-Action Short
Ave Maria
Day One
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles wird gut)
Shok
Stutterer
Alt: Bad Hunter