By John H. Foote

In one week at 5:30 am Pacific time, 8:30 am here, January 13, 2020,  the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards will be announced. One week until we know which films, performances and achievements will be vying for the best of 2019.

The year was rather extraordinary, with Netflix leaping into the Oscar race, potentially dominating it with at least six films that could and should show up with at least one nomination each. The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s magnificent crime epic is expected to lead the nominations with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood nipping at its heels. Netflix produced Scorsese’s film along with The Two Popes, Dolemite Is My Name, Marriage Story, Klaus, and The Highwaymen to have an astonishing year after Roma (2018) won major awards last year, announcing the arrival of the streaming company as a major awards player.

Two comedians, Eddie Murphy and Adam Sandler could find themselves in the Best Actor race, an extremely competitive field this year loaded with brilliant performances.

Disney made an obscene ten BILLION dollars at the box office with their smash hits Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin, The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Frozen 2 and the untold hundreds of millions Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will add to that total. Owning Pixar, Fox, Marvel, Lucasfilm plus their own product has allowed them to take control of the film market, and now they have moved into streaming with Lady and the Tramp released on their new streaming site.

The supporting categories are expected to be dominated by previous winners and nominees, both categories bursting at the seams.

And from South Korea came Parasite, a huge hit that has caught everyone off guard in the manner it has been embraced across North America.

In each category, I list in brackets a wild card, the nominee that might slip in though I expect them to be snubbed. Nothing will make me happier than to see them nominated, but I have strong doubts. Neither short film, animated, narrative or documentary is included because I just do not see them all. Of the films qualifying for nominations in every other category, yes, I have seen them all.

No guts, no glory, here we go, my final written in stone final predictions. And yes, it has been one helluva great year at the movies!

Finally, though I suspect Margot Robbie will be nominated for Bombshell, my fervent hope is that she is instead nominated for her luminous, finally haunting performance as Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Best Picture

The Irishman

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

1917

Marriage Story

Parasite

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Ford v. Ferrari

Little Women

(The Two Popes)

Best Director

Martin Scorsese for The Irishman

Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Boon Jong Ho for Parasite

Sam Mendes for 1917

Taika Waititi for Jojo Rabbit

(Greta Gerwig for Little Women)

Best Actor

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker

Adam Driver in Marriage Story

Leonardo Di Caprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Antonio Banderas in Pain and Glory

Taron Edgerton in Rocketman

(Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems)

(Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes)

Best Actress

Renee Zellweger in Judy

Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story

Charlize Theron in Bombshell

Cynthia Erivo in Harriet

Lupita Nyong’o in Us

(Saoirse Ronan in Little Women)

(Jesse Buckley in Wild Rose)

Best Supporting Actor

Joe Pesci in The Irishman

Al Pacino in The Irishman

Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

Anthony Hopkins in The Two Popes

(Willem Dafoe in The Lighthouse)

Best Supporting Actress

Laura Dern in Marriage Story

Scarlett Johansson in Jojo Rabbit

Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers

Margot Robbie in Bombshell

Shuzhen Zhao in The Farewell

(Kathy Bates in Richard Jewell)

(Margot Robbie in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Best Screenplay Adaptation

The Irishman

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Little Women

The Two Popes

(A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood)

Best Original Screenplay

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

The Farewell

Uncut Gems

Marriage Story

Parasite

(1917)

Best Animated Feature

Toy Story 4

Frozen 2

The Lion King

Missing Link

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Best International Feature (Formerly Foreign Language Film)

Parasite

Corpus Christie

Les Miserables

Pain and Glory

The Painted Bird

Best Feature Documentary

Apollo 11

The Cave

One Child Nation

The Biggest Little Farm

American Factory

Best Cinematography

The Irishman

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

The Lighthouse

1917

Ford vs. Ferrari

(Joker)

Best Musical Score

Little Women

1917

Joker

Ford vs. Ferrari

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

(Avengers: Endgame)

Best Make-Up/ Hairstyling

Bombshell

Judy

Joker

Rocketman

The Irishman

(Maleficent: Mistress of Evil)

Best Visual Effects

1917

The Irishman

The Lion King

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Avengers: Endgame

(Captain Marvel)

Best Sound

1917

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The Irishman

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Rocketman

(Ford v. Ferrari)

Best Sound Editing

1917

Ford v. Ferrari

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Avengers: Endgame

Toy Story 4

Rocketman

(Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)

Best Production Design

The Irishman

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

1917

Jo Jo Rabbit

Downton Abbey

(Little Women)

Best Costumes

Little Women

Downton Abbey

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Rocketman

Jojo Rabbit

(The Irishman)

Best Film Editing

The Irishman

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Joker

Ford v. Ferrari

1917

(Jojo Rabbit)

Best Song

I’m Gonna Love Me Again (Rocketman)

Into the Unknown (Frozen 2)

Spirit (The Lion King)

Glasgow (Wild Rose)

Stand Up (Harriet)

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