Oscars 2021 Predictions: Who Will Win Best Picture, Actor and Actress?

Our expert is here to help you catch up to one of the strangest awards seasons on record. Here is what he thinks will win.

“Nomadland” has won nearly every major award this season, including top honors from the Producers Guild, the Directors Guild and the Golden Globes. By all accounts, this Frances McDormand road drama should be able to steamroll its way to the Oscars for best picture. Then again, “1917” took the same prizes last year and still lost at the Oscars to “Parasite.” Could “Nomadland” find its charmed voyage cut short, too? Let’s look at the would-be insurgents. For many voters, “Promising Young Woman” is playing much like “Parasite” — it’s fresh and contemporary, tackles an important issue with a dark sense of humor, and ends in a way that demands conversation. There’s also “Minari,” which showed across-the-board strength similar to “Nomadland” and “Promising Young Woman”: In addition to nominations for best picture and directing, each of those three movies got nods for its screenplay, editing, and at least one member of its cast. “The Trial of the Chicago 7” won the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild, but I’m still iffy on its best-picture chances: Aaron Sorkin couldn’t land a directing nomination, and the film isn’t assured of a win in any other category. (Only three films have ever won best picture without picking up another Oscar first, and the last one was 1935’s “Mutiny on the Bounty.”)