Back again, yet another year and another pointless award show I’ll be one of ten Brits watching throughout Sunday Night/Monday Morning and as per, I shall be saying my choice to win. There are plenty of sad people who will say who they think will win, but really I’m there for the movies, not the awards.

The Actors & My Favourite awards

Best Supporting Actress

5 – Elle Fanning – Sentimental Value: Nobody nominated is bad, and the Sentimental cast weren’t bad, the film just boring and Elle Fanning was a boring part of it, as was

4 – Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value

3 – Amy Madigan – Weapons: Weapons isn’t my type of movie, but it was fine. It’s a bit weird that Madigan was nominated for this, but I don’t mind genre nominations. This one with the big wig and glasses was meant to be comedic, but I feel the appearance and hair and make up made the role more than performance.

2 – Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners: A former ASBO winner for His House, could it be a second consecutive year of former ASBO winners winning Oscars? The category is pretty weak this year, but Wunmi was a fine piece of Sinners.

1 – Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another My OBAA love is somewhat limited. It’s not a bad movie, but the opening with Taylor is probably the best part. She owns the screen and her chemistry with Leonardo Di Caprio and Sean Penn is so watchable, so I’ll pick her for the Oscar.

Best Supporting Actor

5 – Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein The heavy make up made him more interesting than the character. It wasn’t the best adaption of Frankenstein’s monster and Elordi didn’t elevate it in any way.

2 Benicio Del Toro – One Battle After Another is also not the best supporting male in his movie. Thankfully, that one was nominated. BDT was amusing, but provided little emotional addition compared to my top 3.

3 -Delroy Lindo – Sinners The strangest thing about former ASBO winner Lindo’s nomination is that he probably wasn’t the best supporting role in this movie (which I have on in the background as I write). Both Miles Caton and Jack O’Connell would’ve been better noms. That’s no discredit to Lindo, but it feels like a career nom than one for this role.

2 Stellan Skarsgard – Sentimental Value – The nicest I’ll be about this movie in my blogpost. Stellan provided a humour at times, and complimented the lead really well. At 77 and after a stroke, its good to see him acting.

1 Sean Penn – One Battle After Another – I promise this whole blog won’t just be 100 OBAA awards, however Sean Penn was the best part of the movie as white supremacist soldier Col. Lockjaw. He had chemistry with everyone and was a real menace who provided a rogue, unpredictable sense of danger.

Best International Film

5- Sentimental Value: I’m sorry, it’s not my cup of tea. It was just dull. I’ll discuss during best picture.

4 – The Secret Agent: The two best picture noms are my bottom 2? Am I so out of touch?

3 – Sirat: A fun Spanish rave movie about going across a desert to find a daughter. It’s a technically well made movie with great sound design. Worth catching on the big screen.

2 – The Voice of Hind Rajab: A true story about the death of a Palestinian girl at the hands of the IDF having been left in a car with the bodies of her family. The film takes place in a rescue centre as uses actors as well as Hind’s real voice from the calls she made on the fateful day.

1 – It Was Just An Accident: Another great Jafar Pahani movie which was overlooked for best picture. A man finds his former torturer and needs to work out whether it is him, with a group of others. Darkly comedic at times and horribly tense at others, this movie was a masterpiece with the best final scene of the year.

Best Animated Feature: (Not seen: Arco)

4 – Elio was just a bit naff. Standard recent underwhelming annoying pixar-fare. Nothing more to say

3 – Zootopia 2 was fine. It was better than Elio, but fairly standard for Disney. A sweet story, but nothing revolutionary.

2 – K-Pop Demon Hunters was also okay. Your enjoyment would have been as much as your K-Pop enjoyment. It’s energetic and fun.

1 – Little Amelie was the best of the animated movies. Of course this blog celebrates the tiny French one, but this heartfelt movie which is absolutely beautiful and shows the story of a girl coming of age and working out who she is and her relationships with her family. A simple story, but a phenomenal animation.

Best Actress

5 Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue – A weird choice for a good not great performance from a good not great film. Nothing wrong with it, but this felt very classic oscar bait.

4 Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value – Again, a good performance opposite Stellen Skarsgard, quietly sad, but just not quite as good as the top three.

3 Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You – The only nom for this film is well deserved. Dealing with a child with an eating disorder and a flat with a hole in the ceiling, this movie is knackering and you feel for Byrne’s character. The reason she’s not higher is that the character is a bit more one dimensional than others. A great performance though.

2 Emma Stone – Bugonia – The most charismatic actress around, Stone makes anything more watchable, and that’s the case here as Bugonia was a decent movie with a great cast. She owns the role of CEO/potential alien and gives it gravitas, both vulnerable and powerful against Jesse Plemons’ abducter.

1 Jessie Buckley – Hamnet – The best performance and it’s not even close. Buckley was absolutely moving and devastating as Agnes in Hamnet. It’s a must watch performance which will surely win, and certainly deserve, an Oscar.

Best Actor

5 Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another – Here’s where my OBAA love ends. It’s not even a bad performance. The other four are great and this one I just never really cared for.

4 Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent – A great performance as a man in witness protection from a rich Brazilian, Moura brings a quiet emotional beat which works really well in the movie.

3 Michael B Jordan – Sinners – Mum didn’t realise he played both twins, so I guess that’s a compliment to him about how he made them both feel alive. I don’t know she thought played the other one, or which MBJ played, but good for him.

2 Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon – felt like a prime ASBO nominee. For all my issues with the movie, it really worked best when it was him monologuing as Lorenz Hart, a drunk who was about to lose his songwriters partner Rogers to Hammerstein. So brilliantly watchable.

1 Timothee Chalamet – Marty Supreme – Maybe he is just obnoxious, but TC made Marty watchable and endearing enough that you could keep rooting for him. He played a character who was quietly complex and at odds with himself, and really made him feel alive with great energy.

Best Picture

10 – Sentimental Value I just didn’t get it. Dull and uninviting, Sentimental Value just didn’t stack up to the rest of the movies. Not that it wasn’t well acted, but out of the dull films about filmmaking genre, this one felt particularly wonky. The only film I disliked out of the 10.

9 – Frankenstein An uninspiring retelling which is loyal to the source material, but Del Toro’s weakest film for a while. By no means a bad film, it just doesn’t hit the standard and if anything feels a bit too pretty and neat to meet the Gothic feel of Mary Shelley

8 – The Secret Agent Man, I do not get on with this year’s international picks. The Brazilian movie about a man undercover is well told and looks fantastic, but the story goes for breadth over depth which makes it all feel less satisfying by the end of its long run time, thus sitting at number eight.

7 – F1 A well made standard popcorn movie about fast cars. It’s not a film which you can say much about

6 – One Battle After Another It will probably win, whatever. It’s an okay movie. It just felt very American in its humour and execution which probably stopped me loving it. A competent piece of film making which will be loved by the PTA cult.

5 – Bugonia Now we’re getting to the point of films I wouldn’t be disappointed if they won. Bugonia is a well told madcap story about two men abducting a high flying female CEO or an alien? A well written movie which felt stage play esque is made a great watch by Jessie Plemons and Emma Stone.

4 – Hamnet Jessie Buckley is fantastic in the gloomy movie about Shakespeare’s family. Sad and moving, it’s a really well told movie. The final scene on the stage felt a bit hammy but otherwise the film was fantastic.

3 – Sinners and now we’re at the point of films I’d be happy to win the big prize. Sinners is great on first watch and even better on the second. Vampires, music and history aplenty, it does a lot and balances it all well fantastically to make a great genre piece which remains approachable.

2 – Train Dreams Much less approachable than Sinners, Train Dreams is a gorgeous melancholy tale of loss as a logger loses his family and meets other loggers who are lost. A deeply affecting lead performance and stunning cinematography make this slow burn one of the films of the year.

1 – Marty Supreme Picking this film almost feels wrong as it thrives in it’s simplicity, but like films of yesteryear Supreme works best with it’s chaos as Ping Pong Timmy only needs to get money to get to the world championship. But his idiocy gets in the way, and while insufferable, you want him to develop and find a way through. A lightning fast movie, it never quietens for a minute, but remains engaging throughout. If it wins it will be a welcome tribute to films of the past which don’t feel made anymore.

The Best of the Rest

Best Visual Effects: I haven’t seen Jurassic World Rebirth and have only seen half of The Lost Bus before getting bored. F1 and Sinners have some good effects, but really the only winner here is Avatar: Fire and Ash. Not an inspiring pick, but probably a fair one for the “award I really don’t care about”

Best Editing: Sure, F1 is well done, Sentimental Value exists (That’s the nicest thing I’ll say about it). Marty is great for many things, but not top editing, likewise for One Battle. Best edited of these five is the beautifully made Sinners.

Best Costume Design: In Avatar, they’re all naked which is stupid. Marty is again a weird one as not the most inventive with costumes. Sinners is good at costumes, Hamnet is very good. However, the best costumes in this film are from the wonderfully gothic Frankenstein.

Best Make Up and Haistyling: I haven’t seen Kokuho (No UK release) or Ugly Stepsister (Too wimpy). Smashing Machine is good at what is done, likewise Sinners is great. However, for the big lanky Del Toro monster, I have to give another imaginary Oscar to Frankenstein.

Best Cinematography or prettiest film is a shoe in for me. Not Frankenstein, Marty, One Battle or Sinners, but the phenomenal looking piece of art that is Train Dreams. Every frame felt like a picture, so I really hope the oscars are smart enough to give this award to the film that deserves it.

Production Design or the nicest set is a tough one this year. Again, Marty doesn’t feel right. One Battle is mostly outdoors. Sinners and Frankenstein are both great, however the best setting is Hamnet.

Best Sound: OBAA and Frankenstein feel like non starters. Sinners is very good. F1 goes boom really well and is probably strongest at its sound. Likewise Sirat, the rave desert movie is great. What it does slightly better is mix its sounds with both the louder and quieter moments. It’s a tough call between two big sound movies, but I will go with Sirat.

Best Casting: I don’t really get this as Casting is a new Oscar. However, with some wonderfully bonkers casting choices which all work brilliantly, I will go for Marty Supreme for this Oscar.

Best Song: So, this is one of my least favourite categories as it always has a few strage films I’ll never watch. I haven’t seen Dianne Warren: Relentless, so googled “Dear Me”. Likewise with Viva Verdi and “Sweet Dreams of Joy”. They’re fine. Viva is a really strange choice. Train Dreams from Train Dreams was a song in the movie, but maybe not as impactful to the film, so I don’t like voting that choice. Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters had a great impact so won’t be a bad winner but “I Lied to You” – Sinners is just a magical piece of film making with a phenomenal song which feels generational.

Best Score: Listening to them on spotify, Bugonia, Frankenstein, Hamnet and One Battle all have great scores, but let’s just accept that I’m picking Sinners again and move on.

Shorts: Live action – Two People exchanging saliva.

Best Documentary: I haven’t seen The Alabama Solution, and the other four movies are fine. It’s weaker than last year’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat and No Other Land. This year’s The Perfect Neighbour was horrific exploitation. Come see me in the good light was an okay movie about a poet dying, but maybe too artsy for me. Mr Nobody against Putin is an interesting story about a teacher in Russia. My choice is Cutting Through Rocks about Iran’s first council woman dealing with a conservative older society.

Best Original Screenplay: Sentimental Value was dull, while Blue Moon lost its way after a while. Sinners was well written, while It Was Just an Accident was phenomenally written. However, Marty Supreme was at its best as a result of its razor sharp dialogue, so that gets my vote for this category.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Frankenstein was fine if uninspired, while OBAA was tiptoeing between good and infantile. I’d happily give this to Hamnet if not for the slight rush and hammy final scene. Train Dreams is great, but Bugonia masters the art of conversation.

Best Director: This always feels a bit pointless as it feels like best picture but not. However, the best put together movie technically, was absolutely Sinners, therefore Ryan Coogler would get my vote.

4 – Marty Supreme; Sinners

2 – Frankenstein; Hamnet; One Battle After Another

1 – Avatar Fire and Ash; Bugonia; It was Just an Accident; Little Amelie; Sirat; Train Dreams