With the 95th Academy Awards taking place this Sunday, the usual heated debate over shortlists has resumed. Who should win? Who was wrongly insulted? Which of the actors and directors was lucky enough to be nominated? Does Cate Blanchett really deserve another Oscar? What about Brendan Fraser in his big suit? Could the academy give the top prize to a gritty and dark German-language anti-war film? No news from the western front?

Below are the directors and actors who smile the most on Sunday nights, as well as those whose smiles are more like a wry smirk.

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Will win: All at once everywhere

Invariably, in the weeks leading up to the Oscars, there is a growing hype for one film. Wind in the sails this year All at once everywhere. Bookies see it as a favorite amid mild backlash against a Netflix-funded German-language war film that won a BAFTA award. No news from the western front. The members of the Academy have yet to give the Best Picture award to the Netflix film, and it’s unlikely they will do so on Sunday.

Must win: Banshee by Inisherin

Writer-director Martin McDonagh’s gritty 1920s drama about a crumbling friendship will remain a classic for years to come. It features superb performances by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and combines absurdist comedy with some very insightful insights into why people fight and why civil wars break out. However, it did not do well at the box office, and some voters may have been put off by Guinness’ dark Irish humor.

To be nominated: decide to go

South Korean director Park Chan-wook is the closest director of the caliber of Alfred Hitchcock. Twisted Romance decide to go is its equivalent Fear of heights. Are Bravery cinema, but does not make the list of the best films and does not even have a nomination for the best international feature film.

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Winner: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert All at once everywhere

Best Picture winners also often win Best Director awards. It probably comes with two Daniels behind. All at once everywhere. Her flamboyant, offbeat film mixes soap opera and sci-fi, and the scattered energy seems to have captured voters’ imaginations just at the right time.

Should Win: Steven Spielberg – fables

Spielberg is in his seventies and still makes films with an ingenuity and inventiveness that many young directors would envy. Known as one of the best coming-of-age films of recent years, this autobiographical drama is a great introduction to what Spielberg is up to.

Shouldn’t have Nominated: James Cameron Avatar: Path of Water

It was only polite to acknowledge Cameron’s tremendous accomplishments in rescuing the global film business from the post-COVID-19 doldrums and agree with Tom Cruise. the best weapon too, but do popcorn movies like this really deserve a place on the leaderboard? Isn’t it time to consider the academy a public award?

Best Actor

Winner: Austin Butler Elvis

Former child actor Butler immersed himself in the role of Elvis as best as he could, mastering everything from the king’s pelvic thrusts to his raw southern beagle charms. He competes with another werewolf, Brendan Fraser, who wore an oversized costume and gained weight to transform into an obese hero. WHALE, for an Oscar for Best Actor. Butler is the clear favorite.

Should Win: Bill Nighy – Life

Nighy isn’t as flamboyant as Butler or Fraser, but his excellent performance as an office worker facing his terminal illness has a softness, pathos, and depth that others simply can’t match.

Should have been nominated: Will Smith – emancipation

No wonder Will Smith was insulted. He’s denied an Oscar nomination for his headline reaction to Chris Rock’s jokes about his disabled wife, but he delivers a brutally tense performance in the slavery drama. emancipationA film that certainly deserves more recognition.

Best Actress

Winner: Cate Blanchett resin

Blanchett is a top Oscar contender, although some now have Michelle Yeoh (star All at once everywhere) to orient them towards price. The Australian brings haughtiness and vulnerability to her role as Lydia Tar, a world-famous orchestra conductor who has lost his footing.

Should Win: Andrea Riseborough – Leslie

Riseborough is a highly controversial contestant after an unusual social media campaign unleashed in her name, but she’s eerily believable as an alcoholic, former lottery winner whose life unfolds in an indie drama. To Leslie.

Should have been nominated: Danielle Deadwyler – Before

The embarrassing fact remains that in 2001, Halle Berry was still the only black woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress in history. Earlier that year, Deadwyler had a very good chance of matching Berry, but when the Riseborough campaign began, she (like Viola Davis) didn’t even make the list of nominees.

Best Documentary

Will win: Navalny

Many hope that young Canadian director Daniel Roer’s documentary about the leader of the Russian opposition will win a documentary Oscar. If so, it would draw even more attention to the plight of Navalny, who is currently still in one of Putin’s prisons.

Must win: All the beauty and bloodshed

Laura Poitras’ masterful film tells the touching and insightful story of brilliant American photographer Nan Goldin. The film is also a furious polemic against the Sackler family and their role in the opioid crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

To be nominated: Three minutes in overtime

Producer Steve McQueen (from 12 years of slavery fame) and directed by his Dutch partner Bianca Stigter, this is one of the best and most unusual films about the Holocaust in recent years. It focuses exclusively on three minutes of 16mm home video filmed in a small town in Poland in 1938. These recordings were made just a few months before the city’s Jewish population was massacred.

Best International Feature Film

Will win: No news from the western front

Edward Berger’s adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel stands a good chance of winning this award as consolation for missing out on best film.

Must win: near

Brilliant young Belgian director Lukas Dont’s carefully crafted tale of friendship and betrayal between young people may be too small to grab voters’ attention.

To be nominated: Aurora Sunrise

It is surprising that Inna Sahakyan’s animated film, which tells the amazing true story of a young woman who survived the Turkish Armenian Genocide, is not given due attention.