Best Actor:

This year’s line-up of Best Actor nominees is an interesting mix. Leonardo DiCaprio returns to the Oscars to receive his first nomination since his 2016 Best Actor win, this time for washed-up movie star Rick Dalton in Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Both Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce land their first nominations ever for their respective roles in Pain and Glory and The Two Popes. Adam Driver returns to the Oscars for probably his best performance yet in Noah Baumbach‘s Marriage Story. Yet the most probable frontrunner is Joaquin Phoenix for his role as Arthur Fleck in Joker. As many have pointed out in the months since the film’s controversial premiere, Phoenix’s performance in Joker isn’t one of his strongest. Nevertheless, he undeniably holds the film together, and awards recognition for his acting has undoubtedly been long overdue.

Prediction: Joaquin Phoenix

Best Actress:

The Academy loves a biopic, especially when it comes to the acting categories, and this year is no exception with three of the five Best Actress nominees coming from biopics. Renée Zellweger has been a force to be reckoned with all awards season, picking up by far the most wins of any actress for her turn as Judy Garland in Judy. Though it would seem the Academy will follow the example set for them, last year Olivia Colman won the prize despite Glenn Close being the heavy favorite going into the race. Charlize Theron returns with a transformative performance, hardly recognizable as Megyn Kelly in Bombshell. She previously won Best Actress for another transformative role in Monster and clearly has respect among members of the Academy. Cynthia Erivo has the potential to become the youngest EGOT winner in history for her portrayal of Harriet Tubman in Harriet (along with her Original Song nomination for the same film) and has made huge waves despite only recently breaking into the film scene. She is also the sole person of color nominated for an acting Oscar this year in a disappointing refusal on the Academy’s part to learn from past mistakes. At only 25, Saoirse Ronan has been nominated for her fourth Oscar for her role as Jo March in Little Women and is another performer that will likely be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come. Scarlett Johansson has become the first person nominated in two different acting categories since Cate Blanchett in 2007 and is perhaps the most likely to pull off a potential upset this year for her emotionally charged performance in Marriage Story.

Prediction: Renée Zellweger

Best International Feature Film:

Parasite, the Korean Palm d’Or winner, has been the presumptive winner since moments after it premiered at Cannes, and with nominations for Best Picture and Best Director (among others), it seems almost guaranteed that it will take home the prize for International Feature Film. However, this could be seen as a consolation prize instead of Best Picture and if it were to lose here, it could be an early sign that Parasite will go all the way to win Best Picture. Les Misérables is this years French nominee, a depiction of riots in France that beat out other shortlisted French films Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Proxima for the French endorsement in a widely discussed decision. Honeyland, the North Macedonian documentary about beekeepers is the first documentary nominated for International Feature Film. Pain and Glory, Pedro Almodóvar‘s reflective semi-autobiographical film, has also received a nomination for Best Actor for Antonio Banderas. Corpus Christi, a Polish film about a former convict who is denied entry into the priesthood, is in fact the only one of the International Feature Film nominees not nominated in another category. This marks a major departure from past years where the nominees rarely made waves outside of the formerly named Foreign Film category and it certainly presents an excellent lineup of diverse filmmaking.

Prediction: Parasite