Oscars 2018: Predictions for the 90th Academy Awards

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

With the 90th Academy Awards set to air tonight, here are my predictions for who will be taking home Oscars this evening.

Best Picture: The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro and J. Miles Dale, Producers

Best Director:  Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water

Best Actor:  Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

Best Actress:  Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Supporting Actor:  Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Supporting Actress:  Allison Janney, I, Tonya

Best Adapted Screenplay:  James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name

Best Original Screenplay:  Jordan Peele, Get Out

Best Animated Feature:  Coco (Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson, producers)

Best Documentary Feature:  Icarus (Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan, producers)

Best Foreign Language Film:  A Fantastic Woman (Chile)

Best Cinematography:  Roger Deakins, Blade Runner 2049

Best Costume Design:  Luis Sequeira, The Shape of Water

Best Film Editing:  Lee Smith, Dunkirk

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:  Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick, Darkest Hour

Best Original Score:  Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water

Best Original Song:  “Remember Me,” Coco (Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)

Best Production Design:  Blade Runner 2049; Production Design: Dennis Gassner, Set Decoration: Alessandra Querzola

Best Sound Editing:  Richard King and Alex Gibson, Dunkirk

Best Sound Mixing:  Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker and Gary A. Rizzo, Dunkirk

Best Visual Effects:  John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover, Blade Runner 2049

Best Animated Short:  Dear Basketball (Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant, producers)

Best Documentary Short:  Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (Frank Stiefel)

Best Live-Action Short:  The Eleven O’Clock (Derin Seale and Josh Lawson, producers)

While I would love to see Willem Dafoe take home Best Supporting Actor for The Florida Project, it would be nothing short of a miracle for him to pull it off.  It is, in theory, possible that he could win much along the same lines that Mark Rylance did for Bridge of Spies a few years ago.  It was during that ceremony in which everyone expected Sylvester Stallone to win the Oscar for his role in Creed but Rylance took it home instead.

I would love nothing more than to see Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon take home Best Original Screenplay for The Big Sick but all the money is on Jordan Peele’s script for Get Out.  Regardless of what happens, it’s a good night for comedians with roots in Chicago.

On the Documentary Feature front, I have so many mixed emotions here. I want to see Steve James finally win something as he has been long overdue for a Best Documentary Feature nomination after being snubbed for both Hoop Dreams and Life, Itself.  On the other hand, I’m transgender so how could I not root for Yance Ford given the historic footnote?!?  While Faces Places seems to be the adored film, Icarus has all the timing going for it.

If the Academy screws up and doesn’t select A Fantastic Woman, there’s going to be a lot of disappointed people.  How often is it that a transgender person is in a leading role in an awards contender?  It never happens.  Like ever.  Cis people can get nominated for the Oscars all the time for playing transgender characters (Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Huffman, Jeffrey Tambor) in leading roles but transgender people never get the chance to take on these leading performances.  When do we, buyers don’t know what to do with the films and that’s terribly disappointing.

With regards to Visual Effects, War for the Planet of the Apes should win but the Oscars haven’t seemed to really go on the way of the franchise.  While every installment of Apes has won the Visual Effects Society awards, they’ve always fallen short when it comes to the Academy.  In a perfect world, they get the award for this being the final film in the trilogy.

In predicting the shorts, it’s always a crap-shoot at best because most of us never even have the opportunity to see them.  I didn’t have time to see any of them at the theaters because of awful timing with recovering from having my wisdom teeth taken out.

Find out who will be taking home Oscars when the telecast airs March 4, 2018 on ABC at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT.

Danielle Solzman

Danielle Solzman is native of Louisville, KY, and holds a BA in Public Relations from Northern Kentucky University and a MA in Media Communications from Webster University. She roots for her beloved Kentucky Wildcats, St. Louis Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, and Boston Celtics. Living less than a mile away from Wrigley Field in Chicago, she is an active reader (sports/entertainment/history/biographies/select fiction) and involved with the Chicago improv scene. She also sees many movies and reviews them. She has previously written for Redbird Rants, Wildcat Blue Nation, and Hidden Remote/Flicksided. From April 2016 through May 2017, her film reviews can be found on Creators.

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