This weekend will see the Academy Awards airing (on the Ides of March, no less!)

I completed watching at least the ten films up for Best Picture this year ahead of awards night.

I’ve hemmed and hawed over the decisions in a few categories in the last week leading up to the awards, especially best picture. There are two in that race that are just absolutely phenomenal this year – “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another.”

A lot of the other categories – it’s easier to pick. Jessie Buckley’s win in best actress has been this year’s “not really a surprise” runs and “K-Pop Demon Hunters” continued domination in the animated field all the way to a Criterion Collection release later this year cements what a cultural item that was.

Where it usually gets to quibbling for me is in the short categories. There’s a couple in live action I’m still split between (“The Butcher’s Stain” and “A Friend of Dorothy” were the I can’t tell which way the Academy goes this year), and at least one in animated I think does better than others. In documentary, I may be on the wrong side, but I reiterate how engaging and heartbreaking “All the Empty Rooms” was on a second viewing watched against the other documentary shorts for me.

Visual effects – I make the joke every time James Cameron is up for an award there it’s everyone else’s category to lose, and that holds true this year.

Sound – F1 is the standout.

Costuming – A couple decent options, between “Sinners” and “Frankenstein” that I’m still going back and forth between. I did like the costuming in both. The CGI effects in Frankenstein were more dodgy.

If I’m wrong on writing or directing, that’s usually what sets my ballot in shambles most years, but there are so many years in recent memory where the Academy has also sprinkled love between multiple films as well. I think 2025 was my best year at guessing, and that still had a fair amount of misses.

Just hoping my ballot this year does a little better.