98th Academy Awards: FINAL PREDICTIONS!

by Cláudio Alves

Ryan Coogler's SINNERS is the most Oscar-nominated film ever! But will it win the most awards at the 98th Academy Awards? ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is tough competition.

The 98th Academy Awards are almost upon us, so, on this last day before the festivities, let’s put our pundit hats on and try to suss out whom AMPAS has picked. Nine Team Experience writers, including Nathaniel(!), have provided their best guesses, evidencing some interesting trends, some even more interesting conflicts. One of the big questions is who’ll reign supreme between the two Warner Bros. Best Picture frontrunners. Will it be the all-time nomination leader or the critical darling whose director has been due for ages already? Nat is betting on Sinners getting the biggest haul of the night, including Best Picture, while others, like Eric Blum and Juan Carlos Ojano, don’t even think the vampire flick will beat Frankenstein in sheer number of victories. Presently, I’m the only one predicting Sinners getting the most wins with One Battle After Another still taking Picture. Only time will tell who’s rightest among us. 

Without further ado, please venture, after the jump, to see the full prediction charts, plus some added commentary from the team…

Click to read more ...

Split Decision: "Sinners"

In the Split Decision series, our writers pair up and face off on an Oscar-nominated movie one loves and the other doesn't. Tonight, LYNN LEE and NICK TAYLOR discuss Sinners.

NICK: Lynn, I think you’re one of the only people on this site - maybe in the entire world - whose opinion on Sinners I don’t know. The most nominated film in Oscar’s history deserves a volley before the big night! For my part, I think Ryan Coogler’s ambition is off the charts, and I genuinely can’t wait to see what he and his team are going to do with their blank check. The execution of that ambition, from plotting to formal execution, is very uneven to me, and I have a hard time reconciling what’s so exciting with what’s undernourished. But before I continue, please tell me what you think of Sinners!!

LYNN: Funny, I feel like I've been singing the praises of Sinners so much lately, I'm finding it difficult to avoid repeating myself!  It was my #1 movie of 2025, and I think it deserved many, if not most, of its Oscar nominations...

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley Finale: Best Picture!

The Oscar Volley series concludes with Nathaniel R, Nick Taylor, and Abe Friedtanzer talking Best Picture...

Would the DGA 5 have been the Best Picture 5 if there weren't 10?

NICK TAYLOR: Hello hello! We convene here on the precipice of the 98th Academy Awards to discuss its most above-the-line category, Best Picture! Trade’s reporting says One Battle After Another is leading the pack with Sinners hot on its neck. Rather than starting with the frontrunners, let me ask a different question: who do we think would have made this lineup if Best Picture was still only five nominees?

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: Will “Best Cinematography” make history?

The Oscar Volleys continue. Today, ERIC BLUME and CLÁUDIO ALVES discuss the potentially historic race for Best Cinematography.

With SINNERS, Autumn Durald Arkapaw might become the first woman to win the Best Cinematography Oscar. | © Warner Bros.

ERIC: Hi Cláudio, I'm the lucky man who gets to talk to you about one of Oscar's most exciting categories, Best Cinematography.  Except, for me, it is not a very exciting category this year.  Usually, this branch has at least one or two truly inspired nominations that feel exclusive to their expertise.  This year, much like the Production Design category I just discussed with Ben, I feel like we broke more into the "default" films that popped up in every category. 

What's your initial impression of the five nominees:  Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, Sinners, and Train Dreams?

CLÁUDIO: My initial reaction is that the cinematographers branch should collectively see an optometrist, while the Academy at large needs to watch more movies than the twelve or so titles left contending for a Best Picture nod at the end of December. Alas, that is not the world we live in…

Click to read more ...

Oscar Volley: “Best Actor” will be a nail-biter to the bitter end

The Oscar Volleys continue. Today, CLÁUDIO ALVES and EUROCHEESE discuss the Oscar race for Best Actor.

Timothée Chalamet in MARTY SUPREME | © A24

CLÁUDIO: Last year in movies turned out to be an odd one for me. Mostly because, when I looked at my spreadsheets and lists to make up a ballot, the male acting categories felt markedly richer than their female counterparts. This never happens, not to me, at least. Yet, here we are. And while the supporting acting races don't necessarily show this - the Supporting Actress quintet AMPAS chose is one of the strongest we've had in years, mayhap decades - the leads bear the truth of the matter quite starkly.

In other words, I'm surprisingly happy to be discussing Best Actor rather than Best Actress in this year's volleys. I'm even happier to be doing it with you, Eurocheese! Are you similarly enthused?

EUROCHEESE: Same! I could have easily filled ten Actress slots the prior year, but last year saw a slew of brilliant male leads, making the limit to five a difficult choice. I can't complain about the choices the Academy made here - all five deserve their names in this lineup...

Click to read more ...