
2016 Oscar Predictions: The ScreenCrush Staff Picks the Winners
Ready for the Oscars this Sunday? Need help winning your Oscar pool? The ScreenCrush staff — Editor-in-Chief Mike Sampson, Managing Editor Matt Singer and Senior Editor Erin Whitney — are here to help, or at least try their best anyway. They’ve seen all the movies (yes, even those documentary shorts!) and have come back with a definitive list of who will win at the 2016 Oscars. Normally these lists might have a lot of disparity, but strangely this year’s panel of experts largely agrees on the winners. That could mean good things for you and your office pool. Follow these selections to Oscar glory and bring home all the spoils. Or, come back on Monday morning to yell at them for they gave you really bad advice.
Below are all the winning selections (note: who they think WILL win, not who they want to win, which, for Matt Singer especially, could not be more different) with a brief explanation of their choices.
Mike Sampson | Matt Singer | Erin Whitney | |
Best Picture | The Revenant | The Revenant | The Revenant |
Best Actor | Leonardo DiCaprio | Leonardo DiCaprio | Leonardo DiCaprio |
Best Actress | Brie Larson | Brie Larson | Brie Larson |
Best Supporting Actor | Sylvester Stallone | Sylvester Stallone | Sylvester Stallone |
Best Supporting Actress | Alicia Vikander | Alicia Vikander | Alicia Vikander |
Best Director | Alejandro G. Inarritu | Alejandro G. Inarritu | Alejandro G. Inarritu |
Best Adapted Screenplay | The Big Short | The Big Short | The Big Short |
Best Original Screenplay | Spotlight | Spotlight | Spotlight |
Best Cinematography | The Revenant | The Revenant | The Revenant |
Best Costume Design | Mad Max: Fury Road | Cinderella | Cinderella |
Best Film Editing | Mad Max: Fury Road | The Big Short | Mad Max: Fury Road |
Best Makeup and Hairstyling | Mad Max: Fury Road | Mad Max: Fury Road | Mad Max: Fury Road |
Best Original Score | The Hateful Eight | The Hateful Eight | The Hateful Eight |
Best Original Song | “Til It Happens To You”, Lady Gaga | “Til It Happens To You”, Lady Gaga | “Til It Happens To You”, Lady Gaga |
Best Production Design | Mad Max: Fury Road | Mad Max: Fury Road | Mad Max: Fury Road |
Best Sound Editing | Mad Max: Fury Road | Mad Max: Fury Road | Mad Max: Fury Road |
Best Sound Mixing | The Revenant | Mad Max: Fury Road | The Revenant |
Best Visual Effects | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Star Wars: The Force Awakens |
Best Animated Film | Inside Out | Inside Out | Inside Out |
Best Foreign Language Film | Son of Saul | Son of Saul | Son of Saul |
Best Documentary Feature | Amy | Amy | Amy |
Best Documentary Short | “Body Team 12” | “Body Team 12” | “Body Team 12” |
Best Animated Short Film | “Sanjay’s Super Team” | “Sanjay’s Super Team” | “World of Tomorrow” |
Best Live-Action Short Film | “Ave Maria” | “Shok” | “Shok” |
MATT: Predicting the Oscars: Of all the parts of my job, this is the one I’m probably worst at. After a decade of consistent ineptitude, I believe I’ve finally pinpointed the reason: I think about this stuff like a critic. Sure, I read all the Oscar experts and their predictions, but when I’m torn between several potential winners, I tend to go with my own personal preference which, sadly, almost never line up with the Academy’s. That’s why this year I’m trying something different. Inspired by my sitcom spirit animal, George Costanza, when in doubt, I will do the opposite. What do I think should win? Whatever that movie is, it’s out. What’s the last movie I would vote for? That’s the film I’m picking. That’s why I have so many wins for The Revenant. That’s the opposite. And, I’m guessing, the night’s big winner.
ERIN: Despite being one of the most unpredictable awards seasons and the very rare split between usual Academy predictors, the DGA (The Revenant), PGA (The Big Short), and SAG (Spotlight), this year’s big Oscar winner is as clear to me as the spit dribbling from Leo’s bloody mouth. The Academy was wooed by Alejandro Iñarritu’s cinematic trickery last year (and for the record, I love Birdman), and certainly will be again by DiCaprio’s grunts. Now I like The Revenant, but it doesn’t deserve Best Picture, which I’d happily love to go to The Big Short, Mad Max, or Spotlight, each of which the Academy will apologize to by handing Screenplay or technical awards, or Brooklyn, which is just lucky to get invited. The Oscars are all about honoring the expensive shiny wrapping paper, not the quality of the gift inside. If it were the other way around, Eddie Redmayne would get his second, and much deserved, statue, Rooney Mara would win in her proper category and George Miller would take home his first Directing Oscar. Or, Carol would just win everything.
MIKE: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’m told I have to write more than just the shrug emoticon. OK, let’s be honest: picking the Oscars is really all about those minor categories. The Oscar campaigns have been analyzed from every angle possible and we know with a very high degree of certainty that DiCaprio, Larson, Vikander and Stallone are walking home with Oscars this year. The rest is a crap shoot, but it’s telling that the three of us (who submitted these picks independently of each other) largely agree on almost all of the categories. Remember when there were upsets at the Oscars? When Crash or Alan Alda or Marcia Gay Harden won their Oscars seemingly against all odds? There’s a chance that could happen again this year. Just not a very good one.
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