All Oscar predictors like to give 2 things: who they think will win, and who they wish would win out of the nominees. Or, you know, your brain vs. your heart.
My Oscar Ballot consists of brain and heart choices as well. The heart wants what it wants!
Onto the ballot and the perpetual war between the brain and the heart…
| Category | Brain’s Choice | Heart’s Want |
| Best Actor | Austin Butler and his forever changed Elvis voice feels like it swept up a bunch of support in the Academy. | I’d be happiest for Brendan Fraser, but Colin Farrell has been doing great work for years now, that’s also fine with me. |
| Best Actress | It’s a straight toss up between Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. I give the slight edge to Blanchett. | Michelle Yeoh has been nothing but stupendous in every movie she stars in, and Everything Everywhere showcases everything she’s amazing at. |
| Best Supporting Actor | Ke Huy Quan has essentially swept awards season. | Quan was incredible in EEAAO, making me cry and feel seen at the same time. |
| Best Supporting Actress | Tough one, could be Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, or Kerry Condon. I guess Bassett and Curtis will cancel out the “it’s time” story, giving this to Condon. | Stephanie Hsu was unknown before EEAAO, held her own against cinematic greats like Michelle Yeoh and James Hong, and drove the plot of the movie. |
| Best Cinematography | All Quiet on the Western Front or Elvis are fighting each other. My guess is the war movie wins. | Even though Bardo as a movie doesn’t work, the cinematography does its best to will it to try to be awesome. |
| Best Visual Effects | Avatar: The Way of Water broke the record for most wins at the Visual Effects Awards. | I’d be equally content with either Avatar or Top Gun, both films looked incredible! If I have to choose though, Top Gun: Maverick. |
| Best Sound | Top Gun: Maverick has won a bunch, All Quiet won some. Maverick probably will get a win here. | All Quiet on the Western Front really made me feel like I was in a war. |
| Best Musical Score | Babylon’s showy score vs. All Quiet’s 3 note synth. Hard choice, gonna say All Quiet on the Western Front cause it’s a Best Picture nominee. | I love that relentless Babylon score, which fit nicely into the movie it was propulsing forward. |
| Best Original Song | Naatu Naatu won the song awards at the precursors, and everyone seems to love it. | Bout time India deserves and Oscar, and RRR’s Naatu Naatu is one of the great movie songs, ever, period. |
| Best Costume Design | A 3 way race between Black Panther Wakanda Forever, Elvis, and Everything Everywhere All At Once. Slight edge to all of Elvis‘s costumes. | EEAAO was excellent, by my award goes to the totally delightful Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, which made me fall in love with Dior Dresses, not an easy feat. |
| Best Film Editing | Everything Everywhere All At Once has surprisingly won all the precursor awards for this, making it the front runner. | Everything Everywhere All At Once has to handle jumping across multiple universes and tell a coherent story with action and such. Incredible. |
| Best Makeup & Hairstyling | Fat Tom Hanks and Austin Butler’s Transformation mean Elvis is probably winning here. | Black Panther Wakanda Forever‘s costumes are enhanced by the incredible makeup of the cast. Slight edge to that one over All Quiet. |
| Best Production Design | Babylon won at the BAFTA’s against heavy favorites All Quiet and Elvis. | The parties and era set ups of Babylon really made me wanna be in the crazy glory days of Hollywood. |
| Best Live Action Short | It’s the sentimental delight An Irish Goodbye vs. Oscar Juggernaut Alfonso Cuaron’s short film Le Pupille. Slight edge to Cuaron’s. | I didn’t see these this year in time. Favorite Premise: An Irish Goodbye (about estranged boys finishing a deceased relatives bucket list) or The Red Suitcase (about an Iranian girl considering removing her hijab. |
| Best Documentary Short | Either Netflix promoted The Elephant Whisperers or amazing human Malala Yousafzai’s produced Stranger At the Gate. Everyone loves Malala. | I didn’t see these this year in time. Favorite Premise: by far Malala’s Stranger at the Gate, about a man plotting a terrorist attack meeting potential victims. |
| Best Documentary | A pretty great category this year. Navalny has slowly become the front runner, a riveting political thriller. | Nan Goldin’s incredible story is the stuff of real life superhero’s in All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, a wonderful doc with Navalny close behind. |
| Best Animated Short | Apple TV’s really pushing The Boy, The Mole, the Fox and the Horse. | My Year of Dicks is adult, but it’s the most delightful of the movies, I laughed out loud throughout it. |
| Best Animated Film | Technically brilliant and winning all the awards, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is probably going to take this home. | With all the money going toward higher budgeted Disney efforts, Domee Shi boy banded us into submission with Turning Red, the best G rated movie about female puberty that will ever be made. Marcel the Shell is also really good. |
| Best International Film | All Quiet on the Western Front is nominated all over the place everywhere else, it’s probably going to win. | RRR should have won this award were it up for it, but with it not there, Lukas Dhont’s Close completely tore me to pieces with its beautiful melancholy. |
| Best Original Screenplay | Here starts the run: Daniels won the WGA award, so get those Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscars coming. Darkhorse to Banshees of Inisherin. | By far Daniels have the most original screenplay with Everything Everywhere All At Once, brilliantly distilling a giant story into something emotionally powerful and entertaining. |
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Women Talking is the front runner right now, but don’t bee surprised if All Quiet on the Western Front rides its goodwill to a win. | I really did not like this category this year, but of the 5, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking is the best one, as the dialogue completely makes the movie compelling to watch. |
| Best Director | Daniels won all the guild awards, including the DGA award, the big predictor. | Daniels did something extremely creative with Everything Everywhere All At Once, the most creative thing other than SS Rajamouli’s RRR, which is not nominated. |
| Best Picture | Everything Everywhere All At Once is the favorite. Banshees of Inisherin, Tar, All Quiet, or Elvis are running behind it. | Rarely do I have special movie experiences like the one I had seeing Everything Everywhere All At Once for the first time. I will 100% be rooting for in March 12. |