OK…so here we are in the home stretch. Seems like the nominations were announced decades ago and, if I’m being honest, I’m a little Important Movie-d out right now.  I’ve been craving mindless entertainment instead of historical dramas so I let a lot of my usual Oscar coverage fall by the wayside…chalk it up to being a little less than inspired this year.  It’s a good year for movies, no question, but when the time came to dig deep into the ins and outs of Oscar 2016, I just didn’t have the heart for it all.

In any event…I still have to make my predictions…so here we go!

BOLD = Will Win
*** = My Choice

BEST PICTURE
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Mad Max: Fury Road ***
Room
Spotlight
The Big Short
The Martian
The Revenant

BEST DIRECTOR
Adam McKay, The Big Short
Lenny Abrahamson, Room
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, The Revenant
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road ***

BEST ACTOR
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Matt Damon, The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant ***
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room 
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years ***
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Tom Hardy, The Revenant
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed ***

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight ***
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

BEST EDITING
Mad Max: Fury Road ***
The Big Short
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Revenant

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Bridge of Spies
Ex Machina ***
Inside Out
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Brooklyn
Carol
Room
The Big Short 
The Martian ***

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A War
Embrace of the Serpent
Theeb
Mustang
Son of Saul ***

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road ***
Sicario
The Martian
The Revenant

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road ***
The Danish Girl
The Martian
The Revenant

BEST SOUND MIXING
Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road ***
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Martian
The Revenant 

BEST SOUND EDITING
Mad Max: Fury Road ***
Sicario
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Carol
Cinderella ***
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Bridge of Spies
Carol
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens ***
The Hateful Eight

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Amy ***
Cartel Land
What Happened, Miss. Simone?
The Look of Silence
Winter’s On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Anomalisa
Inside Out ***
Shaun the Sheep Movie
Boy and the World
When Marnie Was There

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
Star Wars: The Force Awakens ***
The Martian
The Revenant 

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
Mad Max: Fury Road ***
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared
The Revenant

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
‘Manta Ray’, Racing Extinction
‘Writings on the Wall’, Spectre
‘Earned It’, Fifty Shades of Grey
‘Til It Happens to You’, The Hunting Ground ***
‘Simple Song 3’, Youth

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
Ave Maria
Day One
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
Shok 
Stutterer ***

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Bear Story ***
Prologue
Sanjay’s Super Team
We Can’t Live Without Cosmos
World of Tomorrow

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Body Team 12
Chau, beyond the ines
Claude LanzmannL Spectres of the Shoah
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Last Day of Freedom ***