Oscar Nominees: Best Picture

My predictions: 8/10
My ballot: Here it is!
The nominees: Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Rihcard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, West Side Story

This category didn’t offer too many surprises, with my unstable #9 and #10 picks, “tick, tick…BOOM!” and “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” which earned two and three nominations apiece, being omitted in favor of my #12 and #13 guesses, Drive My Car and Nightmare Alley, which both got four. The latter’s inclusion was the most unlikely given that it didn’t really clean up at precursors and it didn’t get a corresponding bid today for directing, writing, or editing. But it’s a very good film, so I’m happy to see it here. Of the rest, CODA and Licorice Pizza, two of my favorites, scored just three nominations each, followed by Don’t Look Up with an acceptable four and King Richard with a decent six. Belfast and West Side Story did fine, collecting seven each, which could have better for both. Dune managed ten nominations even with its director snubbed, and The Power of the Dog was expectedly the nominations leader, and remains the Best Picture frontrunner at this point. I’m happy to see four of my top ten films on this list, which isn’t always the case.

My current bet to win: It’s hard to imagine anything beating The Power of the Dog right now.