Is everyone caught up on this year's Oscars movies? If not, you have a few more days to get up to speed.
The 94th Academy Awards are set to air live Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Actors Regina Hall, Wanda Sykes and Amy Schumer will serve as hosts for the annual evening where Hollywood gathers together and celebrates some of the previous year's most notable achievements in cinema.
Here is who will most likely win — and who should be taking home each honor — at the 2022 Oscars.
Best picture
Who will win: "The Power of the Dog"
Who should win: "The Power of the Dog," "CODA," "Belfast" or "West Side Story"
There are very few wrong answers for best picture this year, and chances are still good the Academy will go with the consensus that's slowly been forming around Netflix's "The Power of the Dog."
Jane Campion's deconstruction of how many perceive the American West would be a worthy best picture winner. Equally deserving, however, would be Kenneth Branagh's emotion-heavy "Belfast," Sian Heder's sweet crowd-pleaser "CODA" or Steven Spielberg's epically staged "West Side Story" remake.
Actress in a leading role
Who will win: Jessica Chastain, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"
Who should win: Olivia Colman, "The Lost Daughter"
This is probably the most wide open of all the acting categories. All signs seem to be pointing toward Chastain winning for transforming so completely into famed televangelist Tammy Faye Messner. She certainly put in the work to earn her first Oscar, but so did Olivia Colman for her raw performance as a tortured mother in "The Lost Daughter." The Academy might not want to reward her again so soon after her first win in 2019, but it really should consider doing just that.
Actor in a leading role
Who will win: Will Smith, "King Richard"
Who should win: Will Smith, "King Richard"
Cinephiles may take to the streets if Smith isn't properly rewarded for his efforts to so fully embody all sides of Richard Williams. Whether it was actually Smith's best performance ever or not, he has certainly risen above the pack and will probably continue his awards-season streak come Sunday.
Actor in a supporting role
Who will win: Troy Kotsur, "CODA"
Who should win: Troy Kotsur, "CODA"
It seemed for a while like supporting actor was Kodi Smit-McPhee's Oscar to lose for his layered work in "The Power of the Dog." Recently, though, there's been a surge of support for "CODA" and specifically Kotsur's work as a Deaf fisherman and father who just wants to do right by his family. At this point, no one should be surprised (or upset) if Kotsur rides that momentum all the way to the Oscars stage.
Actress in a supporting role
Who will win: Ariana DeBose, "West Side Story"
Who should win: Ariana DeBose, "West Side Story"
Something monumental would have to occur in the weeks leading up to the Oscars for DeBose to not win this one. She dazzled audiences in Spielberg's take on "West Side Story" and has been racking up prize after prize as awards season presses on. A DeBose victory here is as close to a sure thing as it gets this year.
Directing
Who will win: Jane Campion, "The Power of the Dog"
Who should win: Steven Spielberg, "West Side Story"
Campion's beautifully composed vistas and character-focused directorial flourishes are the odds-on favorite to earn her a best director trophy. While there would be nothing wrong with the category playing out like that, Spielberg's ability to capture the intricate choreography of "West Side Story" while keeping the spotlight on the story's central romance is some of his most impressive work in a long career full of iconic direction.
Writing (original screenplay)
Who will win: "Licorice Pizza"
Who should win: "Belfast"
If the Academy wants to express its admiration for Paul Thomas Anderson and his nostalgia-laced coming-of-age dramedy, this would be the category in which it would be most likely to do so. Ideally, though, that same logic would be applied to Branagh, who also wrote the heck out of this tale about experiencing early childhood during a period of intense conflict in Northern Ireland.
Writing (adapted screenplay)
Who will win: "The Power of the Dog"
Who should win: "The Lost Daughter"
A win in this category for "The Power of the Dog" would be a fairly reliable indicator that the film may be in for a big night. Not that it would be a travesty if it prevailed here, but Maggie Gyllenhaal took "The Lost Daughter" and ran with it to tremendously powerful effect. It would be great to see her earn an Oscar for making a story so difficult and nonlinear such a joy to take in.
Animated feature film
Who will win: "Encanto"
Who should win: "Encanto" ... but also everything else
Last year was an incredible time to be a fan of animated movies and produced an unsurprisingly stacked field of Oscar contenders. "Encanto" will probably prevail after emerging as a cultural juggernaut, but this is one of those categories where any winner should be celebrated for what it was able to accomplish. I have a well-documented soft spot for "The Mitchells vs the Machines," and it somehow pulling off an upset would be the highlight of my Oscars night.
International film
Who will win: "Drive My Car"
Who should win: "Drive My Car"
One can safely assume that the only international film up for best picture is probably going to take this category without much drama. There's a lot of love for "The Worst Person in the World" as well, but it would be a genuine surprise if it managed to upstage "Drive My Car."
Documentary feature film
Who will win: "Summer of Soul (... Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)"
Who should win: "Summer of Soul (... Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)"
While "Flee" has a solid case for itself, there's very little that can compete with the wealth of never-before-seen footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival that "Summer of Soul" made available to mass audiences. Academy voters will probably be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of jaw-dropping content contained in that particular documentary.
Short film (live action), Short film (animated) and Documentary (shot subject)
Credit to all the filmmakers who dedicated so much time and energy into these projects. Speculating on who will win these categories is usually a fool's errand, but for what it's worth, the awards predictions site GoldDerby currently lists the odds-on favorite for short film (live action) as "The Long Goodbye," short film (animated) as "Robin Robin" and documentary (short subject) as "The Queen of Basketball."
Cinematography
Who will win: "Dune"
Who should win: "The Power of the Dog"
Thus begins a run of categories in which Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" will be favored to take home Oscars gold. While Greig Fraser's sweeping sci-fi landscapes were a sight to behold in "Dune," there's also a strong argument here for the craft Ari Wegner displayed in making New Zealand look and feel like 1920s Montana in "The Power of the Dog."
Visual effects
Who will win: "Dune"
Who should win: "Dune"
For the sake of transparency, I'll admit here that I didn't love "Dune." But there's no denying what a visual feast it is and how only the power of modern CGI could bring Arrakis alive in such a stunning manner. The level of detail that went into those sand worms is enough on its own to earn "Dune" a visual effects Oscar.
Sound
Who will win: "West Side Story"
Who should win: "West Side Story"
Let's go out on a limb here and say that "West Side Story" will pull an upset over "Dune" here. It's not that "Dune" isn't a marvel of sound design, but "West Side Story" is literally "West Side Story." Let's not overthink this one.
Production design
Who will win: "Dune"
Who should win: "The Tragedy of Macbeth"
Again, there's a reason that "Dune" is the heavy frontrunner in categories that would honor the technical achievement of making that world feel so lived in and visceral. But for my money, the production design work in Joel Coen's "The Tragedy of Macbeth" was just jaw-dropping. The way its sets allowed for such eye-popping moments of lighting brilliance deserves to be rewarded.
Makeup and hairstyling
Who will win: "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"
Who should win: "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"
Say what you will about the film itself, but it clearly took a lot of work from the makeup and hairstyling departments on "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" to make Chastain's exterior such a close facsimile of the real Tammy Faye Messner's distinct appearance. There are some wonky nominees in this category, but "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" should take this one home without too much trouble.
Music (original score)
Who will win: "Dune"
Who should win: "Encanto"
Hans Zimmer is an entertainment industry legend and as usual imbued "Dune" with a score that captured and matched the film's epic scale. Personally, I think it would be more fun to honor Germaine Franco's "Encanto" score. Maybe Academy members with young children will be too sick of hearing "We Don't Talk About Bruno" to vote for "Encanto" here, but it would be a nice surprise.
Music (original song)
Who will win: "No Time to Die"
Who should win: "Dos Oruguitas"
There would be nothing wrong with Billie Eilish's soulful Bond anthem getting recognized. But the sequence in "Encanto" that was set to "Dos Oruguitas" reduced me to tears, and the song itself is an emotionally packed ode to the commingling of love and despair. Lin-Manuel Miranda really outdid himself with that one.
Costume design
Who will win: "Cruella"
Who should win: "West Side Story"
It seems like the Academy has been quite taken by "Cruella" and its portrayal of high fashion in 1970s London. "West Side Story" arguably featured a bit more craft and pop in its depiction of both high- and low-class 1950s wardrobes, but a "Cruella" win here wouldn't be a travesty by any means.
Film editing
Who will win: "Dune"
Who should win: "Tick, Tick ... Boom!"
Look, if the Academy isn't going to honor Andrew Garfield for giving 2021's most vanity-free performance in "Tick, Tick ... Boom!," then the least it can do is give the film an editing award for how it seamlessly stitched together its many musical numbers. "Dune" is probably going to win multiple awards on Sunday. Throw "Tick, Tick ... Boom!" a bone in this category.
