Best supporting actress

The favorite is Da Vine Joy Randolph and while I enjoyed THE HOLDOVERS she did nothing that anyone couldn't have done; she's not really an actress, just fat and African American. My preference would be Danielle Brooks for THE COLOR PURPLE which is among this seasons inexplicable snubs.

Best supporting actor

The favorite is Robert Downey junior for  OPPENHEIMER and I’m good with that decision. I could also live with Mark Ruffalo for POOR THINGS or Robert De Niro for KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, his best role in years.

Best actress

The favorite is Emma Stone for POOR THINGS and I agree wholeheartedly.

Best actor

The favorite is Cillian Murphy from OPPENHEIMER but if it were up to me the winner would be Bradley Cooper for MAESTRO.

Best director

Again Christopher Nolan, OPPEMHEIMER, is the odds on favorite but especially since I thought it was long and  boring I would much prefer Martin Scorsese for KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON one of the best movies and biggest directing challenges in many years.

Often best director is more of a consolation prize for someone who did a great job but another film just turned into a juggernaut. Meaning that favorite Nolan might get edged out. We shall see that a few days.

Best picture

First of all I don’t think any foreign film should be listed as a nominee for best picture Regardless of how woke or inclusive the members of the Academy fancy themselves to be. There’s already a category for best foreign film and that should be good enough. Aside from that I don’t think anybody can truly appreciate something with subtitles. At least the three foreign pictures nominated this year art anywhere near the top 10 betting favorites: ANATOMY OF A FALL, PAST LIVES and THE ZONE OF INTEREST Are all in the bottom 5. Unfortunately two films I thought were Oscar worthy round out the bottom 5  MAESTRO,  an impressively unique  Leonard Bernstein biopic and AMERICAN FICTION an  entertaining and thoughtful film about the hypocrisy and stupidity of the woke Hollywood crowd. In the 4^th and 5^th position (not likely to win the gold) are THE HOLDOVERS, one of my personal favorites of the season and KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, which in my opinion is the best film of the year hands down. The top three in ascending order of likelihood of success: 3 BARBIE, not only misguidedly woke but a completely unfunny  and poorly crafted piece of crap, 2 POOR THINGS , A very long and particularly unpleasant film but with a brilliant payoff at the end so I could actually live with it winning, and the odds on favorite for months and I don’t see much change in the buzz, 1 OPPENHEIMER Which I found to be way too long and bloated with unnecessary detail.

And they are off. See you at Sardi’s

WSs