Awards season: a time filled with questionable outfit choices, dedicated fandoms and iconic speeches from everyone’s favorite performers. Ranging from early January to the conclusion in early June with the Tony awards, these six months breed unforgettable pop culture moments, such as the infamous Will Smith slap or the Ellen DeGeneres Oscars selfie. But at the core of everything is the performances. In my opinion, it was a very stacked year for movie magic, and with the Oscar nominations officially announced as of publishing, here are my thoughts and predictions as to who will take home this year’s Academy Awards.

Starting with the major technical categories, I believe that Oppenheimer, who led the race with 13 overall nominations, will win a majority of the technical categories like cinematography and film editing. Along with superb acting, I thought visually, Oppenheimer excelled. Next, digging into a more popular category, I think the Best Original Song award will go to Billie Eilish and Finneas’s ‘What Was I Made For’ from Barbie. It was the highest charting of all the nominees and would be their second Oscar in this category. The Best Original Score award is one I’m intrigued about, but I’d give the edge to Oppenheimer, with Killers of the Flower Moon close behind. While the scores cultivated two different worlds, they both elevated the images we watched on screen.

Shifting over to major acting categories, I think Cillian Murphy does pull out the win for Best Actor. In comparison to Best Actor, Best Actress seems to have a top two in the running for me. Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon was phenomenal, but so was Emma Stone in Poor Things. At the Golden Globes, they both won Best Actress, Stone for Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and Gladstone for Actress in a Drama. I do think Gladstone will win but it’ll be close. Best Supporting Actor is looking like the most difficult to predict, with all nominated actors having a strong individual case for the award. I’m partial to Robert Downey Jr., who played Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, but I do think that Ryan Gosling could win based on the uniqueness of Ken from Barbie. Conclusively, I believe Oppenheimer wins Best Picture, having been a major box office success amongst critics and fans.

Now there was some controversy when Greta Gerwig, director of Barbie, wasn’t nominated for Best Director, despite the box office dominance that spawned from the film. Along with that, Margot Robbie was not nominated for Best Actress for her portrayal of Barbie in the film despite being favored to potentially win the award. Overall, despite these potential ‘snubs’, I’m excited about the Academy Awards, one of the premier nights of awards season.