The only precursors left outstanding are the Publicists guild, NAACP Image Awards, Satellite Awards, and Writers Guild of America. Since the Oscars are this weekend, we are unable to wait any longer. Here are our predictions for Best Picture and later this morning, our final overall Oscar predictions.

Best Picture

Winner Predictions

American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer WLPPTL
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest

Runner-Up Predictions

Anatomy of a Fall TL
Killers of the Flower Moon WLPP

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Wesley Lovell: It’s the final award of the night (at least when they aren’t trying to shake things up), so it’s the final category in our Path to Oscar series. There’s really not much to say about this category as it will be one of the least suspenseful of the night. Oppenheimer will win and the potential for a surprise is low.
Pete Patrick: Killers of the Flower Moon started out early with the critics, but Oppenheimer has been the clear front-runner for some time now. Its anti-nuclear message now has a life of its own, inspired by the film. It’s unbeatable!
Thomas La Tourrette: This has become a slam dunk for Oppenheimer as it seems virtually impossible for any other film to win as best picture. It is not that it has dominated the field across the board, but when it comes to the awards that really matter it has practically swept them. It is to the point that it almost seems worthless to guess a runner up. Yet it did not always feel like a sure-fire winner. When it first opened, it had very good reviews and decent box office, then it slowly grew into a powerhouse eventually earning over $320 million dollars domestically. It was dwarfed by Barbie, but they became linked in a way that helped save movie theaters during the summer. Until the nominations came out, I wondered if Barbie would be the film to beat, but without a corresponding directing nomination that seemed unlikely. Barbie might get a few votes in protest, but not enough to come close to winning. A film can win without nominations for director, writing, or editing, but it is rare. This year only three of the best pictures nominees have nominations in all those categories, Anatomy of a Fall, Oppenheimer, and Poor Things. Poor Things was just too weird to win. It is fascinating and wonderful, but definitely odd. It is too out there for some of the older voters and sadly stands a chance of going home with no Oscars. Anatomy of a Fall was stunningly original, but I do not see it being a best picture winner. Killers of the Flower Moon had originally seemed the strongest competition, but has faded dramatically. Oppenheimer thus becomes the likely winner and luckily it was a good film that deserves to win.

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