The Oscars are the most popular award show in the world. Last year, Everything Everywhere All at Once won best picture and many other major categories. This year, the winners seem a little less obvious. With the summer of Barbenheimer, the film industry had a very successful year and the competition will be stiff.

For Actor in a Leading Role, Cillian Murphy appears to be the favorite for his role in the movie, Oppenheimer. It seems like the obvious choice to reward him for the explosive year that he and his movie had. It’s also the logical choice because of the large-spread popularity of the movie and the academy’s tendency to award biopics. This is definitely the most popular movie in the category with the others including Maestro, Rustin, The Holdovers, and American Fiction, most of which Fenwick students haven’t heard of before.

For Actress in a Leading Role, the winner is less clear. Margot Robbie was not nominated for this category controversially, especially considering that her costar, Ryan Gosling, was. As the movie largely centers around conversations of sexism and men getting credit for women’s achievements, this decision seemed especially ironic. Because of Emma Stone’s snub for La La Land, students largely voted for her. The movie, Poor Things, was relatively popular, but not compared to the popularity of Barbie. Emma Stone has been in the industry for a while as well, so the decision seems logical out of the options.

For the category of Animated Feature Film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse may claim the title. This movie was an innovation in animation, especially as an action film. The movie was immensely popular and the storyline itself was incredible. This series has proved that animated movies aren’t just children’s films. This cinematic art form was advanced due to this movie, and for that it deserves to win best animated feature.

For Best Picture, Oppenheimer. Occasionally, the academy’s preferences align with the popular vote. Last year, this was the case with Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s possible that this anomaly will be repeated this year. This movie, along with Barbie, reinvigorated interest in seeing movies in theaters for the first time on this scale since COVID. However, the academies have been known to snub Christopher Nolan, director of the film, in the past. Only time will tell if The Academy chooses to align with the public’s choice or if they will pick a more obscure nominee.