Awards Season 2020: Tez's Official Academy Award Nomination Predictions

Tomorrow morning, the nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced. This year, they will be announced by John Cho (Star Trek Beyond, Searching) and Issa Rae (The Hate U Give, Insecure). 

As has been my practice for the last few years (well, since 2003), I like to try and predict who will be nominated (this is done for Best Picture, Best Director and the four acting awards). Below is my list of who I think will be named tomorrow.

NB. Since the 2010 ceremony, the Academy rules state that there could be anywhere between five and ten Best Picture nominees. I have selected ten films. If the total number of films nominated is less than ten, but one of the movies selected is named in my list of ten, I will count it as a successful prediction.

BEST PICTURE

1917

Bombshell

The Irishman

Jojo Rabbit

Joker

Knives Out

Little Women

Marriage Story

Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood 

Parasite

BEST DIRECTOR

Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)

Sam Mendes (1917)

Martin Scorsese (The Irishman)

Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit)

BEST ACTOR

Antonio Banderas (Pain And Glory)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

Adam Driver (Marriage Story)

Taron Egerton (Rocketman)

Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)

BEST ACTRESS

Cynthia Erivo (Harriet)

Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story)

Saoirse Ronan (Little Women)

Charlize Theron (Bombshell)

Renée Zellweger (Judy)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood)

Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes)

Al Pacino (The Irishman)

Joe Pesci (The Irishman)

Brad Pitt (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Laura Dern (Marriage Story)

Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)

Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers)

Florence Pugh (Little Women)

Margot Robbie (Bombshell)

Usually a score of 15 is adequate, but given the fact that there could be anywhere between 5 and 10 Best Picture awards, I’ll be happy with a prediction of 18 or higher. Last year, I got 28/33 as I tripped up on the Best Director category, and the acting nominations for Roma. 

There's a good chance that both the Director and Actor categories could contain a few curveballs. I've gone with Taika Waititi for Director (due to the DGA nod) but I won't be surprised if Todd Phillips sneaks it for Joker. There's always the chance they throw everyone for a loop and go for Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story) or Greta Gerwig (Little Women).

Best Actor could see some surprises with Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems), Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes), Robert De Niro (The Irishman) and Christian Bale (Le Mans '66 [Ford V Ferrari]) all in contention at some point or another. Similarly, whilst I think Best Actress is fairly secure, Lupita Nyong'o could get a nod in place of Saiorse Ronan for her turn in Us. 

I'll be waiting with bated breath tomorrow afternoon (luckily, it's the more palatable time of 1:20pm here when they're announced) and a post will follow shortly afterwards with the official nominations.