With just days until the 2017 Oscars, you probably don’t have time to watch all of the best picture nominations. Hopefully, you’ve seen a few of this year’s nominated films, but if you haven’t don’t worry… we’ve compiled everything you need to know to place your bet on the biggest category of the night. Plus, we’re throwing in a few predictions for the other major categories of the night.
The 89th annual Academy Awards, hosted by the one and only Jimmy Kimmel, air Sunday night at 8:30 pm ET on ABC.
And the nominees for best picture are:
La La Land
Director: Damien Chazelle
Cast: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling
Plot: A modern-day musical about an aspiring actress and a struggling jazz pianist in Los Angeles who fall in love.
Predictions: Let’s tackle this head on because it’s going to be a very big night for La La Land. A movie doesn’t earn a record-tying 14 nominations and not pick up a ton of awards. So, if you want to get hammered on Oscars night, choose the words “La La Land” for your drinking game with your friends. Should it win best picture? Probably not. Will it win best picture? Probably.
What else will La La Land score? Expect Damien Chazelle to win best director, Emma Stone to win best actress and the film to pick up a ton of other awards, including original screenplay, cinematography, and original score.
Moonlight
Director: Barry Jenkins
Cast: Trevante Rhodes, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris
Plot: A young man’s journey to find himself, told across three time periods in his life.
Predictions: Moonlight should win best picture… and if there is any film that can take the gold statue away from La La Land it’s this one. Keep your fingers crossed. Seriously… keep your fingers crossed.
Other predictions for Jenkins’ masterpiece? Expect Moonlight to win for adapted screenplay and watch for Mahershala Ali to win supporting actor. He brought a profound tenderness to the film and ensured that audiences empathize with the complicated drug dealer.
Fences
Director: Denzel Washington
Cast: Denzel Washington, Viola Davis
Plot: A black garbage collector (who is also a former Negro League baseball player) clashes with his family in 1950s Pittsburgh. The story is based on the August Wilson play of the same name.
Predictions: Fences probably won’t win best picture, but the film will definitely bring home some gold. Bet on Viola Davis winning supporting actress, she’s been a sure thing from the moment she signed on to reprise her Broadway turn. You can also bet on Denzel Washington taking home best actor.
Manchester by the Sea
Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler
Plot: After the death of his brother, a lonesome janitor returns to his hometown to take care of his nephew.
Predictions: If Denzel Washington doesn’t take home best actor, the gold statue will go to the controversial Casey Affleck. Affleck has won more than a dozen awards for his performance in Manchester by the Sea (including the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Motion Picture) but, actors and activists have protested his accolades, slamming the Academy for disregarding the sexual harassment allegations made against the actor.
Hidden Figures
Director: Ted Melfi
Cast: Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe
Plot: The true story of three female African-American NASA mathematicians; the plot centers on Katherine Goble Johnson’s work calculating the flight trajectories for astronaut John Glenn’s first orbit around the Earth.
Predictions: Could Hidden Figures really best La La Land (or Moonlight) for best picture? Probably not… but, there has been rising support for the movie about brilliant black women scientists triumphing in the face of adversity.
Arrival
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
Plot: Aliens have landed on Earth, and a linguist is tasked by the US military with learning their language and communicating with them.
Predictions: Arrival won’t win best picture… but, it might have a shot at more technical awards like film editing, production design, sound mixing, and sound editing.
Lion
Director: Garth Davis
Cast: Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, Nicole Kidman
Plot: A man in Australia uses Google Earth to find his long lost family in a small village in India.
Predictions: “I would like it to win in every category it’s nominated for and in most of the categories it isn’t nominated for as well,” writes Salman Rushdie in a special guest column for Deadline in which he sings the praises of Lion.
Lion was great, and Dev Patel was fantastic but even the movie’s most die-hard fans have to admit that its first hour — the one without Patel — is its strongest. It won’t win best picture and Patel will lose to Moonlight‘s Mahershala Ali.
Hell Or High Water
Director: David Mackenzie
Cast: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges
Plot: Two brothers in West Texas reunite to rob branches of the bank that’s about to foreclose on their family property.
Predictions: Will Hell or High Water be next movie western to win Best Picture at Oscars? (BTW: The Coen brothers’ 2007 modern-day western, No Country for Old Men was the last western to win) The answer is no.
Another no is Jeff Bridges, who is competing for supporting actor. We’ve already established that award is going to go home with Moonlight frontrunner Mahershala Ali.
Hacksaw Ridge
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Teresa Palmer
Plot: The true story of Desmond Doss, an American conscientious objector and combat medic during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II.
Predictions: Hacksaw Ridge won’t win best picture on Sunday night. The film’s best chance at taking home an award is for best sound editing… if Arrival doesn’t take it home.
