“We’ve had some pleasant surprises in these below-the-line categories in the last couple of years,” Zach Laws told me and our fellow Gold Derby contributors Tony Ruiz and Amanda Spears at the end of a final bold slugfest for this awards season to debate our correct (?) Oscar predictions in the 10 craft categories (watch above):
00:40 — Best Film Editing
“ ‘First Man’ won the Critics’ Choice Award and then ‘Roma’ won the most critics’ awards for Best Editing and then we have neither of them here” — Riley Chow on the uncertainty of the race
Best Cinematography (07:10)
“This might be one of those times when not having the name on the ballot is beneficial because I do wonder if you saw the name Alfonso Cuaròn so many times, how many times you would actually want to vote for him” — Zach Laws on how Cuaròn might win several Oscars for “Roma”
Best Makeup and Hairstyling (09:45)
“This was over the moment that trailer dropped where we first saw Christian Bale as Dick Cheney” — Zach Laws on why “Vice” is the front-runner
Best Costume Design and Best Production Design (11:45)
“They’ve made a bunch of changes in the academy in terms of the membership, but there is still a bias in at least some of the tech categories for some of the more tried-and-true” — Tony Ruiz on why he is predicting “The Favourite” over “Black Panther”
Best Song (18:45)
“Unlike in Picture, unlike in Director or Actress, it has delivered on winning Best Song, at the Globes and at the Critics’ Choice and even won that Music award at BAFTA” — Zach Laws on why “A Star is Born” remains the safe bet despite losing momentum in other categories
Best Score (23:05)
“You’ve got to look at ‘Black Panther’ and ‘BlacKkKlansman’ as having just a slight edge because they’re Best Picture nominees” — Amanda Spears on a recent trend with the winners
Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing (30:00)
“The more we’re talking about this, the more I feel like […] I might actually switch to ‘Bohemian’ for Editing as well” — Tony Ruiz on the increasing awards momentum of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Best Visual Effects (37:00)
“The closer you are to being a Best Picture nominee, the closer you are to winning and it is the classiest of the five and this might be the award they can give ‘First Man’ ” — Amanda Spears on betting against front-running ‘Infinity War’
Make your Oscar predictions today so that Hollywood insiders can see how their films and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions as often as you like until the ceremony on February 24. And join in the debate taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our film forum.
