We finally made it Juicers. This insane year of delays and reschedules at the cinema leads us to this delayed and rescheduled Academy Awards. Of course though there is still plenty of excitement, especially after Parasite won last year, and the Academy expanded its members to become much more diverse.

The quality of movies this year has not been at the level I feel of the last couple years, however we still have many worthy winners of the Gold Statuette. As usual I will make my picks based on the nominees, not who I think will win, but who I feel deserves it (I know what do I know). So let’s do it folks your 2021 Oscar Predictions.

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Screenplay by Will Berson & Shaka King
Story by Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas

MINARI
Written by Lee Isaac Chung

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Written by Emerald Fennell

SOUND OF METAL
Screenplay by Darius Marder & Abraham Marder
Story by Darius Marder & Derek Cianfrance

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Written by Aaron Sorkin

Odds Favorite: Promising Young Woman

Juice’s Pick: Trial of the Chicago 7

What can I say, I am in the bag for Aaron Sorkin. The rhythm of his writing just works for me and in Trial he takes it to another level. Promising Young Woman is incredibly unique and I would love to see it win, I also think Minari is very well written. Chicago 7 though to me is just on another level as far as the writing is concerned.

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: DELIVERY OF PRODIGIOUS BRIBE TO AMERICAN REGIME FOR MAKE BENEFIT ONCE GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern
Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Nina Pedrad

THE FATHER
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller

NOMADLAND
Written for the screen by Chloé Zhao

ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…
Screenplay by Kemp Powers

THE WHITE TIGER
Written for the screen by Ramin Bahrani

Odds Favorite: Nomadland

Juice’s Pick: One Night in Miami

I love that The White Tiger got in here because that is a very cool and different movie. Nomadland will win many awards but I just do not think the screenplay is the strength of the movie. And yes I love Borat, but One Night in Miami… is a very worthy winner here. It gives us that great story with 4 American Icons and is acted to perfection. This movie lives and dies with the script and that script is damn good.

VISUAL EFFECTS

LOVE AND MONSTERS
Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox

THE MIDNIGHT SKY
Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins

MULAN
Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN
Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martinez

TENET
Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher

Odds Favorite: Tenet

Juice’s Pick : Tenet

This is for sure the category that has the most interesting movies because none are nominated anywhere else really. Love and Monsters was a really fun movie that not many people saw, Mulan had great visuals but overall was a let down, and The Midnight Sky was a really poor effort in my opinion from George Clooney. Tenet is really the only worthy winner here and no I am not just shilling for my man Chris Nolan (The God). No matter what you think of the story in Tenet, you cannot deny the visuals are incredible. The way the move the camera and actors backwards and forwards in time, all while having elaborate set pieces is pure Nolan. This should easily win on Sunday.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

“Fight For You” from JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II
Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas

“Hear My Voice” from THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Music by Daniel Pemberton
Lyric by Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite

“Husavik” from EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA
Music and Lyric by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson

“Io Sì (Seen)” from THE LIFE AHEAD (LA VITA DAVANTI A SE)
Music by Diane Warren
Lyric by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini

“Speak Now” from ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…
Music and Lyric by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Sam Ashworth

Odds Favorite: Speak Now

Juice’s Pick: Husavik

Let’s get weird! All of these songs are perfectly fine, but if I am not mistaken Husavik is the only one performed in the movie. Sure the movie is not that great but the song actually is fantastic and a really uplifting scene. I think it would be great if this song got the win.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

DA 5 BLOODS
Terence Blanchard

MANK
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

MINARI
Emile Mosseri

NEWS OF THE WORLD
James Newton Howard

SOUL
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste

Odds Favorite: Soul

Juice’s Pick: Soul

Reznor and Ross have incredible double here with Mank and Soul, but I want to really take this moment to acknowledge the continued travesty of the Oscars. That is the year after year disrespect of Spike Lee. Da 5 Bloods was one of the best movies of the year and basically got shut out of the Oscars besides Terence Blanchard’s fantastic score. Spike is easily one of the greatest directors in history and the fact that Oscars just forget about him besides one Screenplay win is a joke. But for this year it does seem like one of the R & R scores should win and Soul just edges it for me. Their usage of old fashioned instruments in Mank is great, but their blend of Jazz and pop in Soul was second to none.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

ANOTHER ROUND
Denmark

BETTER DAYS
Hong Kong

COLLECTIVE
Romania

THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN
Tunisia

QUO VADIS, AIDA?
Bosnia and Herzegovina

Odds Favorite: Another Round

Juice’s Pick: Another Round

I have not gotten a chance to see all of these yet, but Another Round is the clear runaway favorite this year. Thomas Vinterberg the Director is nominated for Best Director and Mads Mikkelsen gives one of the performances of the year. This should have no problem in this category.

Cinematography

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Sean Bobbitt

MANK
Erik Messerschmidt

NEWS OF THE WORLD
Dariusz Wolski

NOMADLAND
Joshua James Richards

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Phedon Papamichael

Odds Favorite: Nomadland

Juice’s Pick: Mank

Nomadland is probably going to win this category, however Mank is the movie that had the biggest accomplishment I thought. That movie from the second it starts looks and feels like a movie straight out of the 1930’s. That is obviously a deliberate choice and it is incredibly well executed. Some movies do black and white, but to actually make it feel from a different era is another step entirely.

Animated Feature Film

ONWARD
Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae

OVER THE MOON
Glen Keane, Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou

A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON
Richard Phelan, Will Becher and Paul Kewley

SOUL
Pete Docter and Dana Murray

WOLFWALKERS
Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young and Stéphan Roelants

Odds Favorite: Soul

Juice’s Pick: Soul

Shocking, I know Juicers that Pixar has two films nominated in this category. I liked Onward, but I do not think it is top tier Pixar like I think Soul is. Wolfwalkers, which is a must different animation style is an awesome story with some great voice performances. And Over the Moon was a Netflix movie that actually featured some fun music. None though compared to Soul which is one of the great Pixar movies of all time in my opinion.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Maria Bakalova in BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: DELIVERY OF PRODIGIOUS BRIBE TO AMERICAN REGIME FOR MAKE BENEFIT ONCE GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN

Glenn Close in HILLBILLY ELEGY

Olivia Colman in THE FATHER

Amanda Seyfried in MANK

Yuh-Jung Youn in MINARI

Odds Favorite: Yu-Jung Youn

Juice’s Pick: Maria Bakalova

Youn is incredible in Minari and brings an energy that you do not see very often. I also think Amanda Seyfried has not gotten enough love for what she did in Mank. She felt like an Actress straight out of the 30’s, and she got lost in the character. Maria Bakalova did something though that truly no one in the world probably can do, and that is keeping up with Sacha Baron Cohen in a Borat movie. She had a huge role seeing as he is so recognizable now, and honestly she should get the award for just sitting through the Rudy Giuliani scene.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Sacha Baron Cohen in THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Daniel Kaluuya in JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

Leslie Odom, Jr. in ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI…

Paul Raci in SOUND OF METAL

Lakeith Stanfield in JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

Odds Favorite: Daniel Kaluuya

Juice’s Pick: Daniel Kaluuya

This is a stacked category, with all 5 guys giving incredible performances. Lakeith feels honestly more of a leading role in his movie but he gives a great performance. Leslie Odom and Paul Raci as well really lose themselves in their characters and deserve to be with this group. But the race is between Cohen and Kaluuya. I do think Kaluuya takes it though because his performance is just absolutely incredible. He is a force every second throughout his movie playing Fred Hampton, and created an extremely memorable character.

Directing

ANOTHER ROUND
Thomas Vinterberg

MANK
David Fincher

MINARI
Lee Isaac Chung

NOMADLAND
Chloé Zhao

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Emerald Fennell

Odds Favorite: Chloé Zhao

Juice’s Pick: David Fincher

Zhao seems to be a runaway train right now with this award, but to me the best directed film this year is Mank. The craft and detail that went into Mank is absolutely incredible and takes only a master craftsman. David Fincher has been waiting to make this movie his whole life, and even if it is not the most accessible movie, you cannot deny the skill that was put in.

Actress in a Leading Role

Viola Davis in MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Andra Day in THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY

Vanessa Kirby in PIECES OF A WOMAN

Frances McDormand in NOMADLAND

Carey Mulligan in PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Odds Favorite: Carey Mulligan

Juice’s Pick: Carey Mulligan

All these woman give great performances, and all have seemingly one one of the various awards leading up to this. However, Carey Mulligan stands out for me with the way that she carries her movie to an incredible degree. She has to play so many different roles throughout Promising Young Woman and it deserves all the recognition. I love Frances, and Viola of course but Carey is the pick for me this year.

Actor in a Leading Role

Riz Ahmed in SOUND OF METAL

Chadwick Boseman in MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Anthony Hopkins in THE FATHER

Gary Oldman in MANK

Steven Yeun in MINARI

Odds Favorite: Chadwick Boseman

Juice’s Pick: Chadwick Boseman

This feels like one of the more predictable awards of the night, and deservedly so. Chadwick in my opinion would have won these even if he could be at this award show to receive it. However, combining this performance with what he means to everyone around the world this will take his legacy to an unreachable level. He deserves this award and I really hope the voters did the right thing.

Best Picture

THE FATHER
David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne, Producers

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler, Producers

MANK
Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski, Producers

MINARI
Christina Oh, Producer

NOMADLAND
Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, Producers

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, Producers

SOUND OF METAL
Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, Producers

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Marc Platt and Stuart Besser, Producers

Odds Favorite: Nomadland

Juice’s Pick: The Trial of the Chicago 7

Nomadland is pretty much a lock at this point for the award, however I wrote in my end of the year column that Trial was my favorite movie of the year. I thought it was so incredibly well written, well acted, and well executed on all levels. All of these movies are interesting and different and show the numerous sides of Hollywood. The only movie I would be upset if it won is The Father, because it is just not on the level of these other films. I hope Trial wins but do not be surprised to see Nomadland take the top spot.

*My full picks below based on who I think will actually win