Oscars 2021 Predictions: Who Will Win In All Categories

The 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, which will honor the best films of 2020 and early 2021, will take place on Sunday April 25, in Los Angeles. Hollywood’s biggest night of the year will clearly be different this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, so keep scrolling to read what we know so far about the changes and to check out our exclusive winners predictions.

The Academy is still planning a live show and an intimate in-person event, with an option to Zoom for the nominees who won’t be able to attend the show. To ensure the public safety and health of the attendees, multiple locations will be used this year. For the first time ever, there will be a pre-show and a post-show to the Oscars, and if you’re wondering who is hosting the ceremony this year, the Academy has not announced a host for the 2021 Oscars so far. Here are our predictions for the big winners at the 93rd Academy Awards. 

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:

Anthony Hopkins (The Father)

Exceptional, mercurial, fragile and fierce, with flashes of humour underlined with a growling Welsh gravitas, this is a masterful performance by Hopkins. His tear-inducing portrayal of an octogenarian slipping into oddity and loneliness as a result of his deteriorating memory is heart-breaking to watch; his ‘mummy’ speech should earn him all the Oscars in the world.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

Lakeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah)

It is a difficult thing to work against the audience’s affections whilst constantly acting as an entry point into the racial war of 1960’s America. Yet Stanfield’s shifty-eyed coward is compellingly human, caught between self-interest and the movement for a better tomorrow.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:

Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)

The most Oscar-nominated black actress deserves this win, playing the mellow matriarch of a 1920’s jazz band and a dangerous diva all at once, aggrieved at being marginalised by racists and patriarchy, yet happy to give anyone a talking-to, all whilst delivering sublime serenades and blues-filledballads – plus, her self-satiated sucking of a Coca-Cola bottle is prize worthy.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:

Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy)

Hopefully this year Close will get her Oscar. In Elegy she plays Mamaw, a weathered wily grandmother who reclaims relevance and legacy for her southern family by grappling responsibility and taking charge of her idling grandson. Aside from an impressive physical transformation, Close’s call-to-action speeches about being ‘a somebody’ is nothing short of inspiring. We all need a straight-talking Mamaw that can pointus in the right direction.

DIRECTING:

David Fincher (Mank)

Fincher crafts an impressive homage to Orson Wells’smagnum opus, Citizen Kane, 

through flashy transitions and flashbacks – all the revolutionary techniques pioneered by Wells. Yet Fincher expands on these techniques, such as incorporating screenplay interjections that help spring along the story of Mank’screative composition as a screenwriter and the tendentious magic of movie-making. Riffing off classic Hollywood mystique with a black-and-white pallet, Fincher is respectful to the past yet does not shy from dramatization.

BEST PICTURE:

Judas and The Black Messiah

Gripping allegorical real-life drama exploring Fred Hampton(Daniel Kaluuya), leader of the Black Panthers and their brave campaign for self-determination that led to woeful downfallthanks to FBI informant Bill O’Neal (Lakeith Satnfield). A wonderful morality tale, questioning allegiances, faiths and values, made all the more powerful in the wake of 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement. This picture is informative, thrilling and interrogative.

To steal a phrase that rings throughout the film, ‘Right on!’

 INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM:

The Man Who Sold his Skin

Kaouther Ben Hania serves up a surreal drama following a Syrian refugee in Lebanon who allows his back to be commoditised as a piece of art, offering up themes of integrity and freedom within an endearing love story. Plus, Monica Bellucci brings an enigmatic presence.

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Viola Davis’s gold grills exemplify her flamboyant hard-edged character. Her sweat and smoky eye shadow instantly transports you into a tiring recording session on a summer’s day.

COSTUME DESIGN:

Emma

Alexandra Byrne breathes life into a much loved classic through vibrant colours that enhance Regency Englandregalia, reinforcing the story’s thematic romance and humour with pastoral pastels – Bill Nighy’s beige blazer is the perfect garb for the film’s stuffy Mr Woodhouse.

SOUND:

Sound of Metal

The loss of a drummer’s hearing (Riz Ahmed) is made visceral by an impressive soundscape that mimics the distorted jangling of ear-pieces and the muffled silence of growing deafness.