Tonight is the night the 95th annual Academy Awards airs, and soon we will have the Oscar winners for 2022’s incredible year of film. The Oscars are always a highlight of my year as I anxiously root for all of my favorite films and performers as the awards roll in. Last year’s lineup of movies and shorts were loaded with phenomenal pieces of art and now is the time to celebrate all them. There will be some categories I do not predict here as I haven’t watched enough of the nominated pool to give an honest opinion, but I will be live updating this post as the awards are announced.

Best Sound

All Quiet on the Western Front, Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte

Avatar: The Way of Water, Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges

The Batman, Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson

Elvis, David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller

Top Gun: Maverick, Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

To me, this category is a two-horse race between All Quiet on the Western Front and The Batman. While I think The Batman should’ve been nominated for more categories than it received, the sound in the film is definitely a stand out (I can still remember the first time the Batmobile’s engine roared in the theater). That said, All Quiet on the Western Front is the film that I both want and believe will win this category. The sound team for this film killed it, and considering their incredible work stands out this well for a movie intended for Netflix the feat they achieved is even more impressive.

Winner: Top Gun: Maverick, Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

Best Original Score 

All Quiet on the Western Front, Volker Bertelmann

Babylon, Justin Hurwitz

The Banshees of Inisherin, Carter Burwell

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Son Lux

The Fabelmans, John Williams

I am one of the many believers that Everything Everywhere All at Once is going to sweep the Oscars this year. However, this will be the category that, I predict, will be one of their losses. The music in both All Quiet and The Banshees of Inisherin stand out to me significantly more and do more to capture the tonality of their films. Despite being a former music scholar, the Best Score category is extremely tough to predict this year, but if I had to take a wild guess, I think I will go with All Quiet on the Western Front.

Winner: All Quiet on the Western Front, Volker Bertelmann

Best Original Song 

“Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman, Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

“Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop

“Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson; Lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler

“Naatu Naatu” from RRR, Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose  

“This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once, Music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; Lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne 

This category is incredibly close between two—mostly because the actual best original song wasn’t even nominated (“Ciao Papa” from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinnochio)—”Lift Me Up” and “This is a Life”. I personally want “This is a Life” to win as it fits perfectly with Everything Everywhere All at Once, but I think that the Academy is going to give it to the Wakanda Forever team. There wasn’t a dry eye in either of my screenings when that song started to play; it carries so much meaning and catharsis within the context of the film and with the passing of Chadwick Boseman.

Winner: “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose

Best Makeup and Hairstyling 

All Quiet on the Western Front, Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová

The Batman, Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Camille Friend and Joel Harlow

Elvis, Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti

The Whale, Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley

This is another category that is way too close to call. I think both The Batman and Wakanda Forever are very happy to be nominated, but they are the two outliers in this group. I think most people are automatically assuming that The Whale is going to take it (the makeup work done on Brendan Fraser is amazing), but I am more of the opinion that either All Quiet or Elvis will take it. The way they show the violence and filthiness of war through the make up in All Quiet on the Western Front is jaw-dropping, but on the other hand, the makeup in Elvis truly transforms Austin Butler and Tom Hanks into two completely different people. I think I am going with the dark horse, Elvis.

Winner: The Whale, Adrien Morot, Judy Chin, and Anne Marie Bradley

Best Costume Design 

Babylon, Mary Zophres

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ruth Carter

Elvis, Catherine Martin

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Shirley Kurata

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Jenny Beavan

One of the easiest categories to call, the first film won this award back in 2019 and I thoroughly believe that the incredible work of Ruth Carter will be honored again. This is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s for sure win for the night.

Winner: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ruth Carter

Best Live Action Short

“An Irish Goodbye,” Tom Berkeley and Ross White

“Ivalu,” Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan

“Le Pupille,” Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón

“Night Ride,” Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen

“The Red Suitcase,” Cyrus Neshvad

Winner: An Irish Goodbye, Tom Berkley and Ross White

Best Animated Short Film

“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud

“The Flying Sailor,” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

“Ice Merchants,” João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano

“My Year of Dicks,” Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon

“An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It,” Lachlan Pendragon

This is a category I always like to binge watch the night before the awards ceremony because it always amps me up for the show. So this category is actually the freshest in my mind, and oh my god, this is an extremely hard one to predict. All five shorts have vastly different art styles, stories, and impact. In my opinion, the weakest of the five is “The Flying Sailor” so I am not expecting it to win at all. The next short I think I want to eliminate from the running is “My Year of Dicks”. This short is wildly fun and dark and relatable, but I also believe it has the least appealing animation style and it was clearly made in an episodic format and then pasted together so I feel like it shouldn’t really be in the running either. The other three are a complete toss up to me. I think I personally would vote for “An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It”, but I think the win is going to go to “Ice Merchants”. That said, I am extremely happy if any of these win as they were all excellent.

Winner: “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud

Best Animated Feature Film 

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Joel Crawford and Mark Swift

The Sea Beast, Chris Williams and Jed Schlanger

Turning Red, Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins

This is an incredibly easy category for me. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is not only the best animated film of the year, but also my third overall favorite movie of 2022. It is infuriating to me that this masterful work of art did not receive a Best Picture nomination over Top Gun Maverick or Triangle of Sadness.

Winner: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley

Best Visual Effects

All Quiet on the Western Front, Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar

Avatar: The Way of Water, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett

The Batman, Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick

Top Gun: Maverick, Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher

Easiest lock of the awards ceremony. If Avatar: The Way of Water doesn’t win this award, I am proclaiming now that I will never watch the Academy Awards ever again. Avatar: The Way of Water is single-handedly the greatest exhibit of visual effects ever put to screen.

Winner: Avatar: The Way of Water, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett

Best Production Design 

All Quiet on the Western Front, Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper

Avatar: The Way of Water, Production Design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; Set Decoration: Vanessa Cole

Babylon, Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino

Elvis, Production Design: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; Set Decoration: Bev Dunn

The Fabelmans, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara

Considering my devotion to Avatar‘s success in the VFX category, you would think that I would be as fervent for this category since James Cameron and the team at WETA had to develop completely new ways of filming and technology to execute this film’s production. However, I actually think the frontrunners for this award are All Quiet on the Western Front and The Fabelmans. I would, personally, like to see The Fabelmans snag the award, but I think it’s going to the team behind All Quiet for the trench scenes alone.

Winner: All Quiet on the Western Front, Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper

Best International Feature Film 

All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) 

Argentina, 1985 (Argentina) 

Close (Belgium)

EO (Poland) 

The Quiet Girl (Ireland) 

Unfortunately, this past year I didn’t get to see most of these films as they didn’t play anywhere near me (if they did, it was at a local theater that doesn’t have parking). Considering only one of these films has nominations in multiple other categories, I think it’s safe to say All Quiet on the Western Front will win.

Winner: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)

Best Film Editing

The Banshees of Inisherin, Mikkel E.G. Nielsen

Elvis, Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Paul Rogers

Tár, Monika Willi

Top Gun: Maverick, Eddie Hamilton

If Top Gun were to pick up an award tonight, it would be this one (they had to condense over 10 hours of aerial footage into the flight scenes in the movie). However, I still believe Top Gun Maverick is the underdog in the race. For me, this is an easy win for Everything Everywhere All at Once. All of these films had phenomenal editing, but to me, EEAAO does not work without its editing team. The entire premise of the film lives or dies by the editing.

Winner: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Paul Rogers

Best Documentary Short Film 

“The Elephant Whisperers,” Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga

“Haulout,” Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev

“How Do You Measure a Year?” Jay Rosenblatt

“The Martha Mitchell Effect,” Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison

“Stranger at the Gate,” Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones

Winner: “The Elephant Whisperers,” Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga

Best Documentary Feature Film 

All That Breathes, Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov

Fire of Love, Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman

A House Made of Splinters, Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström

Navalny, Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris

Winner: Navalny, Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris

Best Cinematography 

All Quiet on the Western Front, James Friend

Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Darius Khondji

Elvis, Mandy Walker

Empire of Light, Roger Deakins

Tár, Florian Hoffmeister

Full disclosure, I have not watched Bardo, so I cannot speak for that film. That said, I am baffled that neither The Batman nor The Northman were nominated. Out of all of the nominated films, the only one that I see on equal footing with either of the two snubbed films is All Quiet on the Western Front. To me Elvis was all about the editing and Butler’s performance and Tár was the script and Blanchett’s performance. Was the cinematography fantastic in both of these films? Yes, but I am confounded that they and Empire of Light were nominated over so many other deserving films and the two aforementioned films that I believe should be the top contenders to win.

Winner: All Quiet on The Western Front, James Friend

Best Original Screenplay

The Banshees of Inisherin, Written by Martin McDonagh

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

The Fabelmans, Written by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner

Tár, Written by Todd Field

Triangle of Sadness, Written by Ruben Östlund

I think this is the tightest category this year (even more so than Best Picture) as the scripts for these films are all incredible. I think there is an extremely solid chance that The Fabelmans gets it as it is, more or less, Spielberg’s memoir, but it is the dark horse. The main competition is between The Banshees of Inisherin with its darkly hilarious wit and fantastic dialogue, Tár and its unarguable masterwork of musical jargon and typical Oscar Screenplay Winner fare, and Everything Everywhere All at Once which is one of the most original scripts ever seen in Hollywood. Since it is so close, I am just defaulting to my favorite film of 2022 as being my prediction, Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Winner: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

Best Adapted Screenplay

All Quiet on the Western Front, Screenplay by Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Written by Rian Johnson

Living, Written by Kazuo Ishiguro

Top Gun: Maverick, Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks

Women Talking, Screenplay by Sarah Polley

This award is kind of the opposite from the VFX category with Avatar: if Top Gun Maverick wins this award, the Academy Awards have lost all credibility. I’m honestly baffled it even got a nomination as the screenplay was basically a copy and paste of the original film and the original Star Wars. That said, this is between All Quiet and Women Talking. I think I’m personally going to predict that Sarah Polley is going to recieve the award for Women Talking.

Winner: Women Talking, Screenplay by Sarah Polley

Best Supporting Actress

Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) 

Hong Chau (The Whale) 

Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) 

Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once) 

Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

This is another race that is way too stacked to make a clear call. A lot of people have been predicting Angela Bassett to win the award, but the recent momentum has been leaning towards Jamie Lee Curtis. If Everything Everywhere gets the award, I personally hope its for Stephanie Hsu as she is the emotional catalyst for most of the movie.

Winner: Jamie Lee Curtis

Best Supporting Actor

Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin) 

Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway) 

Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans)

Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin) 

Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

It wouldn’t be the Oscars if Paul Dano didn’t get snubbed. Without Dano in the race, I think the clear winner is Ke Huy Quan. He’s been the clear favorite for the entirety of 2022 and throughout the entire awards season. However, even though I think Quan will win, I think it is criminal that people are counting out The Banshees of Inisherin. Both Gleeson and Keoghan are more than deserving of the award and if I were an academy voter, Barry Keoghan would’ve been on the top of my list.

Winner: Ke Huy Quan

Best Lead Actress

Cate Blanchett (Tár) 

Ana de Armas (Blonde) 

Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie)

Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans) 

Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

This category is messy. Michelle Williams should’ve been considered under supporting actress, not lead; the Andrea Riseborough situation (I haven’t seen the film so I cannot speak to her actual performance); and the internet’s confusion as to why Viola Davis (The Woman King) or Danielle Deadwyler (TILL) weren’t nominated. As I haven’t seen To Leslie, this is clearly between Blanchett and Yeoh. While Blanchett gave the performance of a lifetime, I selfishly want her to lose. Between EEAAO being my favorite movie of 2022 and Blanchett’s performance hitting too close to home by reminding me of a musical elitist professor I had in college, I really want Yeoh to take this award home.

Winner: Michelle Yeoh

Best Lead Actor

Austin Butler (Elvis) 

Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin) 

Brendan Fraser (The Whale) 

Paul Mescal (Aftersun) 

Bill Nighy (Living) 

Every critic and awards show up till now has been pointing to Brendan Fraser as the frontrunner for the prized Best Actor award, but if I am honest, I don’t think he gets it. While Fraser’s role in The Whale is career defining and the performance of a lifetime, I personally do not put his performance over either Austin Butler or Colin Farrell. I predict Fraser wins, but I think Farrell is the actor who truly deserves it.

Winner: Brendan Fraser

Best Director 

Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin) 

Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once) 

Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans) 

Todd Field (Tár) 

Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness)

I think looking at the momentum of the film’s success, I think the Daniels take this award home for Everything Everywhere All at Once. I think McDonagh and Spielberg are both deserved to be in the discussion for who will win, and I would not be surprised or upset if either took home the award.

Winner: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

Best Picture

All Quiet on the Western Front, Malte Grunert, Producer

Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers

The Banshees of Inisherin, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers

Elvis, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, Producers

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, Producers

The Fabelmans, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, Producers

Tár, Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, Producers

Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, Producers

Triangle of Sadness, Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, Producers

Women Talking, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, Producers

Finally, the biggest and final award of the night. Ever since the Academy opened up the nominees list to 10 films, this award has truly been showing off how incredible and diverse the film industry is. With that in mind and taking in my personal feelings about these movies, it is a sure bet that Everything Everywhere All at Once wins the 2023 Academy Award for Best Picture. It screened for the first time a year ago yesterday and ever since I first watched it, I have been in love with this masterful work of storytelling. There’s a reason this film has so many nominations, and there is a reason it has been sweeping the awards circuit. If you haven’t watched this movie yet, go do it right now.

Winner: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, Producers