With the 98th Academy Awards arriving, here are my predictions for the awards alongside my general thoughts and musings on the nature of the candidates and appreciation for those artists who were not given the recognition I feel they should have been.

I’m less interested in “snubs” and more interested in shining a light on work I felt was spectacular, so my notation of noticeable omissions isn’t meant to denigrate any of other nominees as much as it is to praise what I think is cinematically wonderful/artistically exceptional and offer a look into my own perspective.

For those looking to quickly parse the discussion for just the predictions, I have the winners BOLDED under each award category.

For any category where I haven’t seen a particular nominee, I will be marking them with an * next to the name of the respective film.

I will be skipping the following categories due to lack of familiarity with a majority of the nominees: Animated Short Film, Documentary Short Film, Documentary Feature Film, Live Action Short Film.

BEST PICTURE

FILM	DIRECTOR	PRODUCER(S)
Bugonia	Yorgos Lanthimos	Ed Guiney & Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone and Lars Knudsen
F1	Joseph Kosinski	Chad Oman, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer
Frankenstein	Guillermo del Toro	Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Scott Stuber
Hamnet	Chloé Zhao	Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes
Marty Supreme	Josh Safdie	Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Anthony Katagas and Timothée Chalamet
One Battle After Another	Paul Thomas Anderson	Adam Somner, Sara Murphy and Paul Thomas Anderson
The Secret Agent	Kleber Mendonça Filho	Emilie Lesclaux
Sentimental Value	Joachim Trier	Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
Sinners	Ryan Coogler	Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian and Ryan Coogler
Train Dreams	Clint Bentley	Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer and Michael Heimler

This year’s Best Picture nominees, from my perspective at least, feel relatively on par with some slight stand-outs.

While I believe that One Battle After Another and Frankenstein are a half-step to step better tha the rest, the majority of the other candidates are wonderful films I would not mind seeing win this years award.

F1 is the biggest deviation within the list (good but not of the same pedigree as the rest of its competition) ,but the Oscars, especially in recent years (ex: Wicked, Barbie) have started recognizing the impact of cinematic works in terms of mainstream culture, so the pick makes sense within the larger trend.

Out of all the candidates, the film I believe is MOST LIKELY to win is Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. P.T.A has been one of the best auteurs in the art-form since his Boogie Nights exploded onto the scene in ’97. After years of award misses, it feels like this is his best shot at getting the Oscar. In many ways, the situation reminds me of Scorsese’s wins for The Departed at the 79th Academy Awards; a master rewarded for an excellent film even though it’s not necessarily their best work.

That is not to imply the film is not deserving of the award: it may be Anderson’s most accessible work (which is saying something given its Pynchonian genesis), but its still wholly cinematic; PTA’s firing on creative cylinders that can only be experienced on the big screen. Additionally, the film features PTA’s best action choreography – kinetic set-pieces that ooze tension – and some of his outright funniest scenarios.

While I don’t think any film was “snubbed” so to speak, there are a few films which I felt exhibited the best aspects of cinema which I would have thoroughly enjoyed to see nominated, including but not limited to: Ari Aster’s Eddington (in many ways the foil to One Battle After Another) , Bi Gan’s Resurrection, Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, Noah Baumbach’s’ Jay Kelly, and Tatsuya Yoshihara’s Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc.

While some of these films would definitely not see an academy nomination due to their content, experimental tendencies, or genre leanings, I do believe they represent some of the very best of the year and wanted to shine a light on them alongside the aforementioned offerings.

DIRECTING

FILM	DIRECTOR
Hamnet	Chloé Zhao
Marty Supreme	Josh Safdie
One Battle After Another	Paul Thomas Anderson
Sentimental Value	Joachim Trier
Sinners	Ryan Coogler

Out of the directing candidates, I think Paul Thomas Anderson winning would be wonderful and is the MOST LIKELY winner for the aforementioned reasons.

In terms of missing directors, the omission of Guillermo del Toro is an interesting one given the hype behind Frankenstein and nominations for Best Picture, Cinematography, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Production Design, Sound, Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Actor in a Supporting Role.

The film is absolutely within del Toro’s wheelhouse and feels a step-up from The Shape of Water which he did win for. Given that, I would normally chalk it up to recency bias but given Zhao’s win for Nomadland at the 93rd Academy Awards, that doesn’t feel right either. Regardless, his absence is an odd one.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

FILM	DIRECTOR	COUNTRY
The Secret Agent	Kleber Mendonça Filho	Brazil
It Was Just An Accident	Jafar Panahi	France
Sentimental Value	Joachim Trier	Norway
Sirāt	Oliver Laxe	Spain
The Voice of Hind Rajab	Kaouther Ben Hania	Tunisia

This category is more interesting than usual with 2 films crossing over with the Best Picture List: Sentimental Value and the The Secret Agent. These are our true contenders for the award.

Of the two, I believe that Sentimental Value is MOST LIKELY to win given its increased presence amongst the awards categories . That said, both The Secret Agent and Sirāt are two most cinematic of the nominees and I would vote for either of them to take the win.

Yet, like last year, this category is more interesting to discuss given that the two best foreign films, both contenders for film of the year, have both been woefully excluded from the list of nominees.

At this point it feels like Park Chan-wook and his masterful work will never be recognized by the academy. No Other Choice’s omission is extra baffling and can’t be explained away to something as simple as subject matter given the Academy’s wholehearted embrace of Bong joon-ho’s Parasite at the 92nd Academy Awards – a meditation on class relations that felt universal in spite of its Korean milieu. Park’s approach differs

The omission of Bi Gan’s Resurrection makes sense – the also features an opaque narrative and formal precision that demands viewers pay attention and ruminate on the experience. Given the troubles with getting Academy voters to even watch all the films nominated, its more likely that the majority of the voters would never give this art film a choice.

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

FILM	DIRECTOR(S)
Arco	Ugo Bienvenu
Elio	Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina
KPop Demon Hunters	Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain	Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han
Zootopia 2	Jared Bush, Byron Howard

While I would love if the pastel-infused Little Amélie or the Character of Rain won the award, KPop Demon Hunters is MOST LIKELY to win. The cultural juggernaut cannot and will not be stopped. Its near ubiquitous presence since its debut on Netflix makes it the easiest film to watch for voters (who have no doubt been forced to do the same by family members or friends enamored with the subject matter) and the films general sense of energy and expressiveness makes it an incredibly easy and digestible experience.

However, just like with International Films, this year’s category is marked by a looming omission in Tatsuya Yoshihara’s Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc. The film is formally compact and rigorous in a way that most animated films, western or not, never aspire towards. The film’s camerawork feels just as alive as its physical counterpart, but unbound by the dimensions of animation.

FILM EDITING

FILM	EDITOR
F1	Stephen Mirrione
Marty Supreme	Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
One Battle after Another	Andy Jurgensen
Sentimental Value	Olivier Bugge Coutté
Sinners	Michael P. Shawver

Riding the hype train that is One Battle After Another, I believe that Andy Jurgensen is MOST LIKELY to win. His editing helps propel an otherwise seemingly disparate narrative into a momentum machine that keeps viewers gripped from start to finish in spite of shifting timelines and characters.

That aside, Michael P. Shawver’s work on Sinners and Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie’s work on Marty Supreme are also efforts I would not mind and could see winning. The former’s use of smash cuts and the way it juggles between its moving narratives accentuates the films genre-blending passions and thematic confluences. The latter’s kinetic, frenzied editing is what maintains the gestalt of a narrative that feels like its constantly threatening to upend itself into a wholly different direction.

In terms of omissions,Kim Sang-bum (regular Park collaborator) and Kim Ho-bin’s work on No Other Choice is the best of the year. Park’s films are always in contention for their respective year’s best and No Other Choice is no exception, utilizing every trick in the book as it moves between and through its sequences.

Additionally, Lucian Johnston’s work on Eddington and on If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (talk about a year) is wonderful. In the former, he manages to imbue the film’s gestalt with a paranoid intensity and absurd evolution similar to the algorithms at the stories heart. In the latter, his work accentuates the anxieties and unease at the film’s heart by keeping the viewer just as barely grounded as the story’s protagonist.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

FILM	DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Frankenstein	Dan Laustsen
Marty Supreme	Darius Khondji
One Battle After Another	Michael Bauman
Sinners	Edward Lachman
Train Dreams	Jarin Blaschke

This is a category which is absolutely brimming with quality and is one where any of the winners are worthy due to the depth and beauty of their images.

I believe that Jarin Blaschke‘s work on Train Dreams is MOST LIKELY to win given it is the films most obvious strength and certainly the first feature one discusses post-viewing. The Malickian aesthetic reigns supreme throughout the film and is sumptuous.

In terms of non-nominated works: Dong Jingsong’s work on Resurrection is easily the most ambitious and dynamic work of the year and its omission is utterly baffling in spite of the strength of the other nominees. Pristine lighting, mind-blowing camera movements, and an absolute texture to every image – a must-see on a big screen.

I also wanted to shout out Bruno Delbonnel’s work on The Phoenician Schema imbues the great cinematographer’s dreamy haze against Wes Anderson’s hyper-specific, pastel palette to great effects

Finally, Ben Fordesman’s work on Ronan Day-Lewis’s Anemone is one of the film’s biggest strengths, buoying the uneven narrative with breathtaking visuals that metaphysically transport the viewer.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

FILM	NOMINEES
Frankenstein	Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
Hamnet	Production Design: Fiona Crombie; Set Decoration: Alice Felton
Marty Supreme	Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
One Battle After Another	Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino
Sinners	Production Design: Hannah Beachler; Set Decoration: Monique Champagne

del Toro’s works have always featured some of the most intricately designed and ornate productions in the modern history of the medium and yet the teams’ work on Frankenstein represents an apex in this body of high-points and and will MOST LIKELY be the winner and is my personal pick amongst the nominees. That Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieua somehow one-up their work from Nightmare Alley is astounding.

In terms of non-nominated works: The team behind Resurrection including Liu Qiang and Tu Nanwork deserves a hearty round of applause for the number of environments and scenarios they had to create in order to represent the ever changing landscape of the film.

The team behind The Phoenician Scheme including returning collaborator Adam Stockhausen have also been omitted – an annoying trend with Wes Anderson’s recent output which seems to have been taken for granted.

VISUAL EFFECTS

FILM	NOMINEES
Avatar: Fire and Ash	Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett
F1	Ryan Tudhope, Nicolas Chevallier, Robert Harrington and Keith Dawson
Jurassic World Rebirth	David Vickery, Stephen Aplin, Charmaine Chan and Neil Corbould
The Lost Bus	Charlie Noble, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen and Brandon K. McLaughlin
Sinners	Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter and Donnie Dean

As it is every year that one of its movies gets nominated, the MOST LIKELY and deserving winner will be for the team behind the latest entry in the Avatar franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash. How they manage to set and exceed expectations at every point is a wonder.

In terms of omissions, the team behind the visual effects for Anemone did an incredible job in accentuating the long and unreal camera movements and surreal tone of the film, perfectly accentuating the cinematographic decisions and imbuing them with an otherworldly weight at their best.

COSTUME DESIGN

FILM	NOMINEES
Avatar: Fire and Ash	Deborah L. Scott
Frankenstein	Kate Hawley
Hamnet	Malgosia Turzanska
Marty Supreme	Miyako Bellizzi
Sinners	Ruth E. Carter

As is the story for the Production Design award, I think Academy voters will MOST LIKELY be swayed by Kate Hawleys’s work on Frankenstein and the baroque manner in which she helps brings to life del Toro’s Gothic cum Mexican Catholic fantasia.

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

FILM	NOMINEES
Frankenstein	Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, Cliona Furey
Kokuho	Kyoko Toyokawa, Naomi Hibino, Tadashi Nishimatsu
Sinners	Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine, Shunika Terry
The Smashing Machine	Kazu Hiro, Glen Griffin, Bjoern Rehbein
The Ugly Stepsister	Thomas Foldberg, Anne Cathrine Sauerberg

This award will MOST LIKELY go to Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey and team for their work on Frankenstein and deservedly so at that for manner in which they transform Elordi into the titular monster – familiar yet other, grounded

Though not nominated, the team behind Richard Linklaters’ Blue Moon deserves special praise for the manner in which they transform Ethan Hawke into an aging, small man completely different from the actor we all know.

Additionally, the team behind Charlie Polinger’s The Plague demonstrated that makeup and hairstyling don’t have to be ostentatious to be effective, augmenting the film’s bubbling discontent with their contributions to the blemishes and grotesqueries on the different characters.

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

FILM	WRITER(S)
Blue Moon	Robert Kaplow
It Was Just An Accident	Jafar Panahi; Script collaborators – Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, Mehdi Mahmoudian
Marty Supreme	Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
Sentimental Value	Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier
Sinners	Ryan Coogler

Another year, another Ari Aster omission, this time in the form of Eddington, a bitingly black satire. Given its incendiary gallows humor, the exclusion felt foregone but there is a strange feeling seeing both Bugonia and One Battle After Another nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay when all 3 films have an synchronicity, a kinship of sorts.

Noah Baumbach’s latest, Jay Kelly, co-written with Emily Mortimer, seems to have been misconstrued by both critics and the general audiences despite featuring some of his best writing. The film’s more laid-back treatment of the subject may have lacked the bite voters were expecting from the director of Marriage Story.

In terms of chaotic energy, its interesting to see Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You missing while Marty Supreme (co-written by her partner) sits amongst the nominees. Legs has a similar intensity and break-neck pacing but trades in some of the epic scale for a sharper dramaturgical throughline.

Eva Victor’s debut, Sorry Baby, is another one of the year’s most sharply written scripts missing from the list of nominees Poignant and softly devastating without ever verging onto overstated.

The nominees proper are all excellent but it is Ryan Coogler and his work on Sinners that I think will MOST LIKELY win. Coogler demonstrates his chops once again, proving his ingenuity can thrive with original stories without being confined to any one genre. It’s a rare story which seems to have something for every quadrant of viewer.

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

FILM	WRITER(S)
Bugonia	Will Tracy
Frankenstein	Guillermo del Toro
Hamnet	Chloé Zha, Maggie O’Farrell
One Battle After Another	Paul Thomas Anderson
Train Dreams	Greg Kwedar, Clint Bentley

Paul Thomas Anderson is MOST LIKELY to take home the award for his light adaptation of Pynchon’s Vineland in the form of One Battle After Another. Taking a mood and bags of characteristics, P.T.A’s second Pynchon adaptation has fared far better than his first attempt, Inherent Vice, because he’s somehow simplified the heart of the narrative into one that is deeply resonant in spite of the quirkiness and art leanings of the narrative.

However, once again, No Other Choice an adaptation of Donald Westlake’s The Axe, which manages to feel wholly different than Costa-Gavras’ 2005 adaptation has been omitted.

It is also strange to see a Knives Out film mist the cut for a screenplay nomination, especially when the 3rd film written again by Rian Johnson, is tighter than the 2nd and more thematically incisive than the 1st.

SOUND

FILM	NOMINEES
F1	Gareth John, Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo and Juan Peralta
Frankenstein	Greg Chapman, Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira, Christian Cooke and Brad Zoern
One Battle After Another	José Antonio García, Christopher Scarabosio and Tony Villaflor
Sinners	Chris Welcker, Benjamin A. Burtt, Felipe Pacheco, Brandon Proctor and Steve Boeddeker
Sirāt	Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas and Yasmina Praderas

The team behind F1 is MOST LIKELY to win. The film’s limited inclusion here and in the Best Picture line-up leads me to believe that the Academy cede the award over, especially given that there’s no purported leader amongst the pack of nominees.

That said, I would easily pick the work of the team behind Sirāt. The film’s use of sound is easily amongst the best of the year and defines the gestalt of the piece.

In terms of omissions, the team behind Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland’s Warfare crafted one of the truly immersive and haunting soundscapes lending to the films’ visceral feeling. Like Sirāt, this is a film defined by its soundscape.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

FILM	COMPOSERS
Bugonia	Jerskin Fendrix
Frankenstein	Alexandre Desplat
Hamnet	Max Richter
One Battle After Another	Jonny Greenwood
Sinners	Ludwig Goransson

In a category brimming with quality, it’s hard to complain about what’s been omitted, but I would be remiss if I did not mention both Daniel Lopatin’s (Oneohtrix Point Never) work for Marty Supreme and Bobby Krlic’s work for Anemone.

In addition, Daniel Blumberg’s work on The Testament of Ann Lee (a film which was shut out of all nominations) is pivotal to the re-enactment qua musical driving the film forward and is worthy of admiration.

Of the nominees, it feels like the two primary contenders are Jonny Greenwood and Ludwig Gorranson. The former’s syncopated ambience perfectly accentuates the story and transforms the characters into gears in a machine, turning, even if out of sync, as the grind against one another to a crescendo. The latter, like he did with his Academy Award winning work on Oppenheimer, coats Sinners with his signature from start to finish, bringing to life the sonorous conceit at the heart of of genre-bending film about our relation to song.

While I would give the slight personal edge to Greenwood’s work, I believe that Ludwig Gorransson is MOST LIKELY to win for his work, especially given the intrinsic manner in which music is embedded into the film’s dramaturgy.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

SONG	FILM	NOMINEES
Dear Me	Diane Warren	Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
Golden	KPop Demon Hunters	Music and Lyric by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo and Teddy Park
I Lied To You	Sinners	Music and Lyric by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Goransson
Sweet Dreams Of Joy	Viva Verdi!	Music and Lyric by Nicholas Pike
Train Dreams	Train Dreams	Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; Lyric by Nick Cave

While I would pick “I Lied to You” from Sinners, as the song itself and the manner in which its utilized lends to one of the truly transcendent cinematic moments of 2025 (and is certainly the scene one thinks of when they think of Sinners), “Golden” will MOST LIKELY win the award given its resounding success as a track itself, racking up listens on music streaming platforms and gaining a life as its own phenomena.

With that said, The Testament of Ann Lee being shut out of the nominees is a travesty given the film is about the act of song-making as spiritual experience just as much as Sinners is (if not moreso). Blumberg’s revival of Shaker hymns is wonderful and it would have been a joy to see “Hunger and Thirst” nominated.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

FILM	ACTOR
Marty Supreme	Timothée Chalamet
One Battle after Another	Leonardo DiCaprio
Blue Moon	Ethan Hawke
Sinners	Michael B. Jordan
The Secret Agent	Wagner Moura

While initially a race between Timothée and DiCaprio, it feels like the other nominees have caught up and there’s a real competition behind who will take home the big award.

I still believe Timothée is MOST LIKELY to win the award, having come in as the “runner-up” so to speak in last year’s award ceremony for his performance in A Complete Unknown and delivering a completely different character in his nominated performance this year for Marty Supreme. That range and consistency is something I think will be looked favorably one, especially given the immense vitality Chalamet brings to his titular Marty. If his ill-timed comments on the other performing arts had happened during voting season, I’d be more reluctant to hedge my bets, but it looks like the damage that was done shouldn’t impact his chances this year.

That said, my personal pick would be either DiCaprio or Hawke. The former’s stoned-out loser of revolutionary desperate to fulfill his role as a father feels like a part that the celebrated thespian was born to play, acting against his celebrated looks and suave characterizations in what might be his funniest performance. Meanwhile, the latter’s complete transformation into a bitter, yet jovial, melancholic romantic is staggering and represents an absolute transformation.

Performances which deserve consideration despite not being nominated include: Jesse Plemons in Bugonia who delivers a career-best as a manic conspiracy theorist desperate to exorcise his trauma, Joaquin Phoenix in Eddington whose outing as a small-town conservative sheriff engenders a level of empathy in spite of his ignorance and self-serving proclivities, Lee Byung-hun in No Other Choice who plays a man so precisely on the edge that we can’t help but laugh as we recoil with dread at his decision-making.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

FILM	ACTOR
One Battle after Another	Benicio Del Toro
Frankenstein	Jacob Elordi
Sinners	Delroy Lindo
One Battle after Another	Sean Penn
Sentimental Value	Stellan Skarsgård

This category is somehow even harder to predict than lead, with Elordi, Penn, and Skarsgård having won industry precursors. Given Penn‘s late resurgence, I believe he is MOST LIKELY to win for his staggering performance as Lockjaw. He transforms himself, imbuing his character with a particular physicality that is both lived-in and a caricature simultaneously, eliciting both fear and laughter as he mercilessly executes his contradictory desires.

However, I would not be surprised with a Skarsgård win (even if I don’t understand his characterization as a supporting role given his primacy within Sentimental Value) . Unlike Penn, he hasn’t won an Oscar as of yet and the Academy could use this role to finally recognize him. The presence of Benicio could also split votes away from Penn and help Skarsgård close out a close race.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

FILM	ACTRESS
Hamnet	Jessie Buckley
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You	Rose Byrne
Song Sung Blue	Kate Hudson
Sentimental Value	Renate Reinsve
Bugonia	Emma Stone

Given her domination of the awards circuit, the winner will MOST LIKELY be Jessie Buckley for her staggering, emotionally endearing performance in Hamnet.

While Rose Byrne’s performance is as pointed and emotionally resonant, she does not have the same reach amongst the voters.

On that note, the lack of audience (voter) resonance with Die My Love by Lynne Ramsay may explain why Jennifer Lawrence’s staggering, raw portrayal of a woman at the seams was completely omitted from the list of nominees.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

FILM	ACTRESS
Sentimental Value	Elle Fanning
Sentimental Value	Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas
Weapons	Amy Madigan
Sinners	Wunmi Mosaku
One Battle after Another	Teyana Taylor

Like the race for Best Supporting Actor, this race is split between three nominees: Amy Madigan, Teyana Taylor, and Wunmi Mosaku.

While I would vote for Teyana as her performance is largely contained to the opening of the film and her absence operates almost as another character entirely, reinforcing the enormity of her presence, I believe that the winner will MOST LIKELY be Amy Madigan.

She is the primary driving force of Weapons in spite of her limited run time. Given that she hasn’t won an award yet, I feel the Academy will use this as an opportunity to finally recognize her.

CASTING

FILM	CASTING DIRECTOR
Hamnet	Nina Gold
Marty Supreme	Jennifer Venditti
One Battle after Another	Cassandra Kulukundis
The Secret Agent	Gabriel Domingues
Sinners	Francine Maisler

The nominees for the 1st Best Casting award is absolutely stacked and I would not mind seeing Jennifer Venditti, Cassandra Kulukundis, or Francine Maisler taking home the inaugural award. Each of these films is peppered with interesting decisions and new faces which seem destined to become mainstays in the industry.

However, I believe that Francine Maisler is MOST LIKELY to win for her work on Sinners. The film has the 2nd most acting nominations after One Battle After Another and I believe that the award will be given as a way of compensating for close losses in other categories.

Unfortunately, like with other categories, the omission of the casting director(s) behind Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme is absolutely baffling and indicates more so that voters have gotten used to the staggering displays of acting and coordination present in Wes’s films. That his films can consistently boast such wonderful casts while integrating new faces is something that should be applauded, especially given the consistency.