Predicting Oscar Winners

by Ryan James Tobin ’26 on February 26, 2026

A&E - Film & TV

Awards season is not only officially upon us, but also coming to a close. With the Academy Awards coming up, some stars have made tremendous moves and pushes to take home the big one this year. Here is an overview of who I think will walk away with the gold for the biggest categories on March 15.

Best Actor

Nominees: Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Michael B. Jordan (Sinners), and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).

Predicted Winner: Timothee Chalamet

Why? Chalamet has been consistently incredible since his prominent role in Lady Bird. He has also been an Academy Award staple, as this is his fourth nomination with zero wins to his name. DiCaprio is a close second in my book as he turned in my personal favorite performance of his career in a film that is likely to win him many Oscars this year. Sadly, based on how this awards season panned out, Chalamet has a very large lead in this race in comparison to the former Oscar winner. Jordan, Hawke, and Moura all turned in career-defining performances as well, and Moura also has the awards season momentum to achieve a shock win here. However, I think it’s the man who always says he is chasing greatness that finally gets to call himself one of the greats in this case.

Best Actress

Nominees: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), and Emma Stone (Bugonia).

Predicted Winner: Rose Byrne

Why? All five of these leading performances are unparalleled. Buckley has been the clear favorite for the longest time in this particular race, however, not every front-runner receives the statue. Byrne was If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, meaning that the entire movie rested on her shoulders, and she still delivered an awe-inspiring performance. She also has the resume and career that Oscar voters typically like to reward. Looking further down the line, Oscar darling Stone is in third for me in this particular category, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the votes between the top two contenders, Byrne and Buckley, are split so evenly that Stone ends up taking home the top prize. As for now, this writer is pulling for the Aussie.

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees: Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another), Sean Penn (One Battle After Another), Delroy Lindo (Sinners), Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value), and Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein).

Predicted Winner: Stellan Skarsgård

Why? The men’s best supporting actor race is by far the closest and most unpredictable. As aforementioned, I think Oscar voters are going to be splitting votes between two candidates in multiple fields. Del Toro and Penn were both magnificent in a star-studded One Battle After Another cast, but if I had to choose between one of them, I don’t know if I could. That leads me next to the two men who had the best awards seasons and are therefore riding a wave of momentum into the big night: Elordi and Skarsgård. Both received notable best supporting actor wins on the road to the Academy, but neither has a clear edge over the other. Furthermore, both star in movies that are absolutely stunning but for different reasons—one for cinematography, and the other for emotional experience. I mention this because I think Skarsgård takes home the top prize due to the emotional depth of the film he is representing—that is the only edge I believe is visible in this face.

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees: Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value), Inga Ibsdotter Lilleas (Sentimental Value), Amy Madigan (Weapons), Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners), and Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another).

Predicted Winner: Teyana Taylor

Why? While my heart is telling me to go with the dark horse—Fanning—my head is telling me that Taylor simply has this in the bag. It is also worth mentioning that my original pick before the Golden Globes, Ariana Grande (Wicked: For Good), wasn’t even nominated. It may just come down to Madigan vs. Taylor, and the One Battle After Another star has had an awards season for the history books, taking home many of the top coveted prizes.

Best Director

Nominees: Chloe Zhao (Hamnet), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme), Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value), and Ryan Coogler (Sinners).

Predicted Winner: Paul Thomas Anderson

Why? When multiple shots from your nearly three hour film are being held in such high regard that people claim “cinematic masterpiece,” “best visual art they’ve seen,” or “this needs to be taught in film schools”—you should be a shoe in. Right? Not exactly. Those remarks have been made for multiple people in this category, and this race is not very cut and dry. Anderson has nearly swept the Best Directing prize this awards season and is my pick to win it all, but it’d be incredible to see history made if Coogler were to become the first black director to win the prize, or Zhao become the first woman to win it twice.

As for the other major categories, here are my predicted winners:

Best Picture: One Battle After Another

Best Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters

Best Cinematography: Sinners

Costume Design: Frankenstein

Film Editing: F1

International Feature Film: The Secret Agent

Casting: One Battle After Another

Writing (Original): Sentimental Value or Sinners

Writing (Adapted): One Battle After AnotherAnd finally, Best Original Song: “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters

The 2022 Oscar Nominations

by on February 18, 2022

A&E - Film & TV

The 2022 Oscar Nominations

A Look at the Most Notable Nominees and Snubs

Olivia Riportella ’25

The nominations for the 2022 Oscars have officially been announced in anticipation of the Academy Awards’ 94th annual ceremony. This exciting list includes names and films from a wide range of genres. Set to take place on March 27, the awards will feature its first host in three years, although it is not yet publicly known who has been chosen for this honor.

Notably, every year, the Academy creates a theme for the ceremony, and this year’s theme is “Movie Lovers Unite,” which is quite fitting given that this is the most highly anticipated and closely watched Oscars season in years. Indeed, from big-budget films to small arthouse productions, the 2022 race is already on track to make history.

The film that dominated this year’s nominations was The Power of the Dog. Notably, four of the movie’s 12 nods are for acting honors, and the movie’s director, Jane Campion, has made history with this drama by becoming the first woman to be nominated in the Best Director category more than once. Campion was previously nominated for her work on the 1993 drama The Piano. Trailing close behind The Power of the Dog is the sci-fi epic Dune, which secured 10 nominations, including the night’s top prize of Best Picture.

Moreover, in addition to Campion’s exciting feat, a second directing nominee has set a new record: the iconic Steven Spielberg. His production of West Side Story earned a whopping total of seven nominations from the Academy. Spielberg has now set the record for most films nominated for Best Picture, with 11 to his legacy. Denzel Washington is another record-setter, extending a record he holds as the most nominated Black actor ever by earning his 10th nomination for his performance in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

The Best Actor category produced expected and deserving nominations. In addition to Washington, Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for The Power of the Dog, Andrew Garfield for tick, tick…BOOM!, Will Smith for King Richard, and Javier Bardem for Being the Ricardos.

The Best Actress nominations also did justice to this year’s standout performances, with Nicole Kidman nominated for Being the Ricardos, Olivia Colman for The Lost Daughter, Penelope Cruz for Parallel Mothers, Jessica Chastain for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Kristen Stewart—in her first Oscar nomination ever—for Spencer.

There is always room for nomination backlash, however, in light of major snubs. An anticipated pick for the Best Actress category was Lady Gaga for her performance in House of Gucci, but the leading lady was not named among the nominees. Another surprising snub this year was in the Best Director category. Denis Villeneuve, who directed the ten-category nominated motion picture Dune, was noticeably not recognized.

Yet another major motion picture snubbed this year was Spider-Man: No Way Home. While the Academy tends not to consider franchise movies for its awards, fans were hopeful that the Marvel film would prove an exception to the rule: it has already become the sixth highest-grossing movie in global box office history, seen nearly $1.8 billion in ticket sales, and was easily the highest-grossing movie of 2021. Although Sony Corp. and Disney Co. were both campaigning for this critically acclaimed film to receive its due recognition, their efforts were to no avail.

Nevertheless, this year’s pool of Oscar nominees is talented and deserving, which will undoubtedly make for an exciting and entertaining awards ceremony.