​The 96th Academy Awards are almost here! They’ll be taking place on Sunday, March 10th at 7PM E/4PM P on ABC. To prepare you all for Hollywood’s biggest night, I’ll be going through all 9 below-the-line categories and give you insights as to how the race in each of them is shaping up going into the Oscars. So let’s get on with it, shall we?

Best Original Score:

1. Oppenheimer
2. Killers of the Flower Moon
3. Poor Things
4. American Fiction
5. Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny

Five years after winning an open ended race in this category for Black Panther, Ludwig Göransson is a lock for a second Oscar for Oppenheimer. He’s already won at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, and even the Grammys for his work on that film. The musical score he composed perfectly complements all the thoughts going on in J. Robert Oppenheimer’s mind. It’s no contest.

Best Original Song:

1. 'What Was I Made For?' from Barbie
2. 'I'm Just Ken' from Barbie
3. 'It Never Went Away' from American Symphony
4. 'Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)' from Killers of the Flower Moon
5. 'The Fire Inside' from Flamin' Hot

There are two Barbie songs in contention here. ‘What Was I Made For?’ won the Golden Globe while ‘I’m Just Ken’ won the Critics’ Choice. Both of them were not only up against each other at the Grammys, but also two other tunes from Barbie. Yet, ‘What Was I Made For?’ prevailed over there, and I think it’s safe to assume it’ll overcome vote-splitting here at the Oscars. Plus, it also won a Grammy for Best Song of the Year.

Best Cinematography:

1. Oppenheimer
2. Poor Things
3. Killers of the Flower Moon
4. Maestro
5. El Conde

With wins at Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, and ASC Awards, this is looking like Oppenheimer’s to lose. Hoyte van Hoytema’s work there consists of countless stunning images. It goes back and forth between color and black & white. Not to mention that the whole thing was shot on 70mm IMAX film. Who could ask for anything more?

Best Film Editing:

1. Oppenheimer
2. Killers of the Flower Moon
3. Anatomy of a Fall
4. Poor Things
5. The Holdovers

With wins at Critics’ Choice, BAFTA, and ACE Eddie Awards, this is another category that is looking like Oppenheimer’s to lose. Despite being three hours long, Jennifer Lame’s excellent editing keeps the whole thing moving at such a great pace. It’s never boring at all.

Best Sound:

1. Oppenheimer
2. The Zone of Interest
3. Maestro
4. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One
5. The Creator

With wins from the Cinema Audio Society and Golden Reel Awards, Oppenheimer is expected to take this. Which would make a lot of sense in part because of how the winner here also usually takes Best Film Editing. It was especially like that every year since 2013 with the exception of last year where Everything Everywhere All at Once won the latter category without showing up in this one. For now, that was likely an anomaly. Although at BAFTA, The Zone of Interest beat Oppenheimer for Best Sound. I’m guessing that was probably more of a BAFTA thing. The sound work on The Zone of Interest may be effective, but it’s still more subdued compared to Oppenheimer. Anyone who experienced the latter in theaters (especially IMAX) should hopefully be impressed enough with its sound work to vote for it here.

Best Production Design:

1. Poor Things
2. Barbie
3. Oppenheimer
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
5. Napoleon

In this category at the precursors, Critics’ Choice went for Barbie while BAFTA went for Poor Things. At the Art Directors Guild Awards, the latter beat the former for Best Fantasy Feature Film. On paper, it would make a lot of sense to predict Poor Things. It has very dazzling scenery from beginning to end. While not impossible Barbie could still win based on the strength of Barbieland alone, it’s not present throughout that whole film. Therefore, I’m leaning more towards Poor Things.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling:

1. Maestro
2. Poor Things
3. Oppenheimer
4. Society of the Snow
5. Golda

When the first images were revealed of Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, everyone was pretty much like “this is a lock to win Best Makeup & Hairstyling.” It recently picked up 2 accolades from the Makeup Artists & Hair Stylists Guild. Although at two prior major precursors, different story. Critics’ Choice went for Barbie, which didn’t even get nominated here. BAFTA went for Poor Things, which is nominated here. The only really showy makeup work in the latter film is on Willem Dafoe’s character. Meanwhile, Maestro is literally a makeup showcase from start to finish like a couple of recent Oscar winners in this category, Vice and Bombshell. This seems like the best place to award Maestro, so I’m sticking with it.

Best Costume Design:

1. Poor Things
2. Barbie
3. Killers of the Flower Moon
4. Oppenheimer
5. Napoleon

Leading up to the Oscars, Barbie won the Critics’ Choice Award and Costume Designers Guild (for Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film). Meanwhile, Poor Things won the BAFTA and the Costume Designers Guild (for Period Film). Similar to the 2018 race in this category between another billion dollar genre hit with more contemporary clothing, Black Panther, and another Yorgos Lanthimos black comedy with more period clothing, The Favourite. Back then, the former prevailed over the latter. Barbie may have a leg up given that a great deal of the costumes (specifically in Barbieland) are very stylish. But I’m going with Poor Things for arguably being more imaginative.

Now the toughest below-the-line category to predict this year...

Best Visual Effects:

1. Napoleon
2. The Creator
3. Godzilla Minus One
4. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One
5. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3

Early on, we all expected Dune: Part Two to take it in a cake walk. Yet that movie got delayed because of the SAG strike. So then many moved on to Oppenheimer as the frontrunner, but that didn’t even make the shortlist. All of the sudden, this race became similar to Best Director in 2012 where Ben Affleck swept that season for Argo despite getting snubbed by the Academy. Then it became a real mystery of “What the hell is winning in their absence?.” BAFTA went for Poor Things, which did make the shortlist here, but didn’t get nominated. At the Visual Effects Society Awards, The Creator took home 5 accolades. That movie has a compelling narrative of how the filmmakers managed to pull off such a massive scope on a production budget of just $80,000,000. Although there is a possibility of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon upsetting here as the more prestigious film in contention. Plus, it is the only contender here with a corresponding nom for Best Production Design which helped a lot of winners in this category within the past 22 years. Napoleon may have gotten very mixed reactions from critics, but this award isn’t Best Visual Effects in a good movie, it’s Best Visual Effects in general. In such an open ended race, I’m gonna play it safe by sticking with the stats here. Although I wouldn’t be too surprised if Godzilla Minus One ends up taking it. That movie has such a devoted fanbase, and it very impressively managed to pull off such high caliber VFX work on a production budget of just $15,000,000. I can see the more international voting bloc of the Academy vouching for it. Then again, that movie received no other Oscar noms. So far, only The Jungle Book back in 2016 managed to overcome that within the 21st century. But in that scenario, it was not only a sweeper, but it also may have partially benefitted from the absence of a Best Picture nominee (I’m still convinced Arrival would’ve won that year had it been nominated).

​As a reminder, the Academy Awards will be taking place tonight on ABC. The pre-show will begin at 6:30pm/3:30pm. After that, the 96th Oscars telecast will begin at 7:00/4:00 lasting for about three and a half hours or so. Here is a quick rundown of my predictions for the three short categories…

Best Animated Short Film:

1. War is Over! Inspired By the Music of John & Yoko
2. Letter to a Pig
3. Ninety-Five Senses
4. Pachyderme
5. Our Uniform

Best Documentary Short Subject:

1. The Last Repair Shop
2. The ABCs of Book Banning
3. Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó​
4. The Barber of Little Rock
5. Island in Between

Best Live Action Short Film:

1. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
2. Red, White, & Blue
3. The After
4. Invincible
5. Knight of Fortune