2024 Oscar Winner Predictions

These strike me as the toughest categories to crack - races where I’m still wavering and devoid of any real confidence on the outcome:

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actress
Best Original Screenplay
Best Documentary Feature
Best Film Editing
Best Sound

Conclave and Anora are so close for the top prize that I can’t help but simply split the difference and go with the former in Best Picture (despite its surprising Best Director snub) and latter in Director. I can just as easily fathom Anora taking both or Brady Corbet repeating his BAFTA win. (I don’t, however, have much faith in The Brutalist taking Picture, even if Corbet triumphs).

Best Actress rings of a true barn burner and not necessarily just between Demi Moore and Mikey Madison - with I’m Still Here as a surprise (and plenty deserving) Best Picture nominee, backed by the awards season masters at Sony Pictures Classics, there’s a legitimate case to be made for Fernanda Torres. It’s plausible Moore falls short ala past SAG-winning/BAFTA-losing veterans Julie Christie and Glenn Close but there’s no doubt more passion exists in AMPAS for The Substance than did for the likes of Away from Her and The Wife - and all of her precursor speeches have been knockouts. At the same time, it’s hard to fathom Madison losing if Anora is winning the top prize.

Even with Anora riding high in momentum, Best Original Screenplay looks awfully tight too, especially on the heels of A Real Pain’s BAFTA win. Do actors overwhelmingly vote for Jesse Eisenberg and put him over the top? Had his film scored a Best Picture nom, I’d probably predict him. If he does claim victory, A Real Pain will mark only the second film in Oscar history, after The Usual Suspects, to earn two nominations in total - one for acting, one for writing - and win both.

For much of the season, No Other Land seemed to have the makings of a Best Documentary Feature front-runner but that hasn’t really panned out. Instead, this rings of a race where any of the contenders could triumph.

Among the crafts, Best Film Editing feels the most unsettled. Odds are, its winner will match the Best Picture winner, so Conclave or Anora, though I don’t count Emilia Pérez out, even if it’s done at this point for the top prize. Best Sound is also tough to forecast - Dune: Part Two makes sense, in part because the first entry took this category, but this also presents the best opportunity to throw A Complete Unknown a bone and avoid an 0-for-8 shutout. Wicked has a real shot here too.

Beyond these super suspenseful showdowns - I’m not buying Timothée Chalamet as a truly daunting threat to Adrien Brody in Best Actor (and I predicted Chalamet at SAG). He’s at least, of course, more within striking distance than any of the hopeless competition facing Zoe Saldaña and Kieran Culkin.

Conclave will score Best Adapted Screenplay regardless of how Best Picture goes down. I do have I’m Still Here scoring the upset over Emilia Pérez in Best International Feature Film, though I’m not sure how much of a shock that’ll be at this point, given the former’s Best Picture nom and the latter’s deterioration. The crafts will spread the love but again, may be challenging to avoid a shutout for A Complete Unknown.

As for Best Original Song…I so wish I could predict Diane Warren finally triumphing on her 16th Oscar nom. I can’t quite get there - I still think “El Mal” takes it, in part because it’s a Zoe Saldaña showcase and she’s managed to escape her film’s collapse unscathed. But this is Warren’s best shot since 2015 and, barring a groundswell of love for Elton John, she’s probably in runner-up position.

All that said, here they are - final Oscar predictions, from most to least likely to win:

Best Picture

1. Conclave

2. Anora

3. The Brutalist

4. Wicked

5. The Substance

6. A Complete Unknown

7. I’m Still Here

8. Emilia Pérez

9. Nickel Boys

10. Dune: Part Two

Best Director

1. Sean Baker, Anora

2. Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

3. Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

4. James Mangold, A Complete Unknown

5. Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez

Best Actress

1. Demi Moore, The Substance

2. Mikey Madison, Anora

3. Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

4. Cynthia Erivo, Wicked

5. Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez

Best Actor

1. Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

2. Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown

3. Ralph Fiennes, Conclave

4. Colman Domingo, Sing Sing

5. Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Best Supporting Actress

1. Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

2. Isabella Rossellini, Conclave

3. Ariana Grande, Wicked

4. Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown

5. Felicity Jones, The Brutalist

Best Supporting Actor

1. Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

2. Guy Pearce, The Brutalist

3. Yura Borisov, Anora

4. Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown

5. Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

Best Original Screenplay

1. Sean Baker, Anora

2. Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain

3. Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

4. Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist

5. Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David, September 5

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. Peter Straughan, Conclave

2. RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys

3. Jay Cocks and James Mangold, A Complete Unknown

4. Jacques Audiard, Emilia Pérez

5. Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin and John “Divine G” Whitfield, Sing Sing

Best Animated Feature

1. The Wild Robot

2. Flow

3. Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

4. Memoir of a Snail

5. Inside Out 2

Best Documentary Feature

1. Porcelain War

2. Black Box Diaries

3. No Other Land

4. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

5. Sugarcane

Best International Feature

1. I’m Still Here (Brazil)

2. Emilia Pérez (France)

3. Flow (Latvia)

4. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany)

5. The Girl with the Needle (Denmark)

Best Animated Short

1. Wander to Wonder

2. Yuck!

3. Beautiful Men

4. In the Shadow of the Cypress

5. Magic Candles

Best Documentary Short

1. The Only Girl in the Orchestra

2. I Am Ready, Warden

3. Death by Numbers

4. Incident

5. Instruments of a Beating Heart

Best Live Action Short

1. The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

2. Anuja

3. A Lien

4. The Last Ranger

5. I’m Not a Robot

Best Cinematography

1. Lol Crawley, The Brutalist

2. Greig Fraser, Dune: Part Two

3. Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu

4. Edward Lachman, Maria

5. Paul Guilhaume, Emilia Pérez

Best Costume Design

1. Paul Tazewell, Wicked

2. Linda Muir, Nosferatu

3. Lisy Christl, Conclave

4. Arianne Phillips, A Complete Unknown

5. Janty Yates and Dave Crossman, Gladiator II

Best Film Editing

1. Nick Emerson, Conclave

2. Sean Baker, Anora

3. Juliette Welfling, Emilia Pérez

4. Myron Kerstein, Wicked

5. Dávid Jancsóm, The Brutalist

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

1. Pierre-Oliver Persin, Stéphanie Guillon and Marilyne Scarselli, The Substance

2. Frances Hannon, Sarah Nuth and Laura Blount, Wicked

3. Traci Loader, Suzanne Stokes-Munton and David White, Nosferatu

4. Julia Floch Carbonel, Emmanuel Janvier and Jean-Christophe Spadaccini, Emilia Pérez

5. Mike Marino, Sarah Graalman and Aaron Saucier, A Different Man

Best Original Score

1. Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist

2. Volker Bertelmann, Conclave

3. John Powell and Stephen Schwartz, Wicked

4. Clément Ducol and Camille, Emilia Pérez

5. Kris Bowers, The Wild Robot

Best Original Song

1. “El Mal,” Emilia Pérez

2. “The Journey,” The Six Triple Eight

3. “Never Too Late,” Elton John: Never Too Late

4. “Like a Bird,” Sing Sing

5. "Mi Camino,” Emilia Pérez

Best Production Design

1. Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales, Wicked

2. Craig Lathrop and Beatrice Brentnerová, Nosferatu

3. Judy Becker and Patricia Cuccia, The Brutalist

4. Suzie Davies and Roberta Federico, Conclave

5. Zsuzsanna Sipos, Shane Vieau and Patrice Vermette, Dune: Part Two

Best Sound

1. Gareth John, Richard King, Ron Bartlett and Doug Hemphill, Dune: Part Two

2. Ted Caplan, Tod Maitland, David Giammarco, Paul Massey and Donald Sylvester, A Complete Unknown

3. Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson and John Marquis, Wicked

4. Erwan Kerzanet, Aymeric Devoldère, Maxence Dussère, Cyril Holtz and Niels Barletta, Emilia Pérez

5. Randy Thom, Gary A. Rizzo, Leff Lefferts and Brian Chumney, The Wild Robot

Best Visual Effects

1. Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe and Gerd Nefzer, Dune: Part Two

2. Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, Paul Corbould and David Shirk, Wicked

3. Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story and Rodney Burke, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

4. Luke Miller, David Clayton, Keith Herft and Peter Stubbs, Better Man

5. Eric Barba, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Daniel Macarin and Shane Patrick Mahan, Alien: Romulus