Oscars 2023 Predictions: Picking all 23 Winners

John R. Baldwin March 11, 2023

It’s that day of the year. The day when cinema celebrates itself. Oscars 2023, the 95th Academy Awards Ceremony, is just hours away. The red carpet is set (although this year it will be champagne beige) and everyone makes sure Will Smith is nowhere near. So today I decided to do something different. Instead of my normal football picks, I will give you my Oscars 2023 predictions for all 23 categories.

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Some of my picks are completely predictable, so there is really no betting value there. But in other categories, I see an upset happening. And there is where I believe my Oscars 2023 predictions can come in handy for you.

Best Picture

Favourite: Everything Everywhere All at Once
My Pick: Everything Everywhere All at Once – 1.07
There is no upset happening here. The hype is real. A sci-fi adventure flick is going to win Best Picture! The odds are low for a reason and if the movie does not win, then we will be talking about the biggest underdog story of all time.

Best Director

Favourite: Daviel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
My Pick: Daviel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once) – 1.05
Yet another pick that needs no explanation. The Daniels have done a terrific job. They are the favourites in three personal awards and I cannot see them losing one of the two major ones. As for the third, well… we’ll talk about it in a while.

Best Actor

Favourite: Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
My Pick: Austin Butler (Elvis) – 2.35
During festival season everyone was hyping Fraser, saying he has the award locked. But then The Whale disappointed at the box office. It is more than rare to see an actor winning the award for a film that was not among the ten Best Picture nominees. Austin Butler, on the other hand, has all the hype around him. The Academy loves Elvis Presley and this film was a love letter to his legacy. Plus, winning both the BAFTA and the SAG awards for Best Actor, pretty much spells an Oscar win. This is my first underdog in my Oscars 2023 predictions.

Best Actress

Favourite: Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
My Pick: Cate Blanchett (Tár) – 2.30
I’ll be honest. If it was up to me, Michelle Yeoh would win. But there is a reason I believe Cate Blanchett will upset the odds and win her third Academy Award. Whenever the Best Actress category feels like a close race (and this is a close race) the BAFTA Awards always reveal the Oscars winner. Ever since Francis McDormand won for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, I promised to never again doubt the BAFTAs. And then there is another factor. The Best Actress category is traditionally the “whitest” acting Oscars category. In 95 years, only one non-white actress has won the thing and this was Halle Berry for Monster’s Ball, back in 2002.

Best Supporting Actor

Favourite: Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
My Pick: Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once) – 1.03
Ke Huy Quan is one of the nicest people in Hollywood. He abandoned acting 30 years ago because there were no roles for Asian-American actors and he didn’t want to be typecasted. He became one of the best stunt coordinators, but then the Daniels gave him the script of Everything Everywhere All at Once. He is back, he will win the Oscar, and he will give the best acceptance speech of the night, as he’s done in every awards ceremony this year.

Best Supporting Actress

Favourite: Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
My Pick: Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) – 3.25
This is one of my boldest Oscars 2023 Predictions, as I am not going with the second favourite, who is Jamie Lee Curtis, and I’m not going for the biggest favourite, according to the best bookmakers, Angela Bassett. Bassett did not win at the SAG Awards and did not win at the BAFTAs. I cannot see a Marvel actress doing so at the Oscars. As for Curtis, the narrative around her is cool, but her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once is pretty small and I don’t see voters handing the film an award for such a small role.

Best Original Screenplay

Favourite: Everything Everywhere All at Once
My Pick: The Banshees of Inisherin – 2.15
The Daniels are the nominees for Everything Everywhere All at Once here. And something tells me that voters won’t hand them three personal awards. It’s not my most confident out of my Oscars 2023 predictions. More of a gut feeling, I must admit.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Favourite: Women Talking
My Pick: Women Talking – 1.50
This is a two-horse race between Women Talking and All Quiet on the Western Front. I prefer the latter as a movie, but Women Talking is more “script-heavy” material. A big-fat No Bet here.

Best Animated Feature Film

Favourite: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
My Pick: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – 1.03
Pinocchio set in Fascist Italy. This by itself sounds amazing. And it is. It has won every award it was nominated for and there is no upset on the horizon.

Best International Feature Film

Favourite: All Quiet on the Western Front
My Pick: All Quiet on the Western Front – 1.03
Germany is set to win its first International Film award since 2006 and The Lives of Others. There is no competition here.

Best Documentary Feature

Favourite: Navalny
My Pick: Navalny – 1.45
An anti-Putin documentary while the War in Ukraine is still going on? It cannot lose.

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Best Documentary Short Subject

Favourite: The Elephant Whisperers
My Pick: Stranger at the Gate – 3.75
Activist Malala Yousafzai is behind this project, about a US Marine planning a terrorist attack against a mosque. There is a lot of political tension here, but it is gaining a lot of buzz in the past few weeks.

Best Live Action Short Film

Favourite: An Irish Goodbye
My Pick: An Irish Goodbye – 2.00
I will be honest. I didn’t particularly like any of the five nominated short films. So I will base my Oscars 2023 predictions for this category on one factor and one factor alone. An Irish Goodbye is the only one to be in English. No subtitles make a boring film less boring, I understand.

Best Animated Short Film

Favourite: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
My Pick: Ice Merchants – 4.25

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse is a particularly long film, as far as shorts go, with a run time of 37 minutes. And it is geared towards children. I much prefer the more adult Ice Merchants and My Year of Dicks. My only concern, that makes me less confident about my Oscars 2023 Predictions for this category, is that the two might split the votes among those thinking like me.

Best Production Design

Favourite: Babylon
My Pick: Babylon – 1.35
I was pretty sure before the BAFTAs. Now I am 100%. Babylon will win the Oscar for Best Production Design. No upset pick in my Oscar 2023 predictions for this particular category.

Best Original Score

Favourite: Babylon
My Pick: All Quiet on the Western Front – 2.50
I just cannot see Babylon leaving with two awards. Its score is catchy, but I feel that All Quiet on the Western Front will manage to come on top.

Best Sound

Favourite: Top Gun: Maverick
My Pick: Top Gun: Maverick – 1.50
A sound editing masterpiece. It is more likely to see Tom Cruise hiring a stuntman than Top Gun: Maverick to lose this award.

Best Cinematography

Favourite: All Quiet on the Western Front
My Pick: All Quiet on the Western Fron – 1.20
My Oscars 2023 Predictions for cinematography are as easy as they get, as All Quiet on the Western Front has won every related award it was nominated for.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Favourite: Elvis
My Pick: Elvis – 1.45
The odds are too low, as The Whale does stand a chance. So the Oscars 2023 Predictions actually come up to a No Bet. But I believe Elvis got it. This award will be given early in the night and if The Whale wins, I might start believing that Brendan Fraser stands a chance to win Best Actor.

Best Costume Design

Favourite: Elvis
My Pick: Elvis – 1.55
The Costume Designers Guild gave its award to Everything Everywhere All at Once, but here it is not just costume designers who vote. Elvis won the BAFTA and it earns a spot in my Oscars 2023 predictions list.

Best Film Editing

Favourite: Everything Everywhere All at Once
My Pick: Everything Everywhere All at Once – 1.45
Even if it didn’t get all that hype as a quality film, Everything Everywhere All at Once would have won Best Film Editing. The editors in this picture are practically acting with their work.

Best Visual Effects

Favourite: Avatar: The Way of Water
My Pick: Avatar: The Way of Water – 1.03
Avatar: The Way of Water broke all records at the Visual Effects Society Awards. It is the most sure-thing among the 2023 Oscars.

Best Original Song

Favourite: Naatu Naatu (RRR)
My Pick: Naatu Naatu (RRR) – 1.25
Once again, a nominee that has won every major award. It is not losing tonight.