Presumed Oscar frontrunners Power of the Dog, CODA, and Belfastbattling it out for Best Picture supremacy

The 94th annual Academy Awards ceremony is this Sunday night, and for once many of the eventual winners are shockingly difficult to predict. But as close as several of the races in many of the top categories appear to be — most notably Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay — that's nothing compared to the various controversies the producers of this year's broadcast have inadvertently managed to gin up.

First, it was announced that eight categories — Editing, Sound, Makeup and Hairstyling, Production Design, Documentary Short, Animated Short, and Live Action Short — will all be revealed in the hour before the live broadcast is set to begin at 5 p.m. Pacific, with snippets of each acceptance speech edited into the show later on. Social media understandably went nuts over this, with the hashtag #PresentAll23 trending ever since, while Best Actress nominee Jessica Chastain has already stated she'll refrain from walking the Oscar red carpet so she can be seated in the auditorium to support her The Eyes of Tammy Faye hair and makeup team.

There have been a handful of disasters since, but the most notable one involves rising West Side Story star Rachel Zegler. After a fan posted about their excitement at seeing what Zegler was going to wear to the ceremony, Zegler revealed on Instagram she wasn't even invited to attend. (She has since been invited as a presenter.)

On the same day her post went viral, the Academy announced its final set of presenters for the broadcast, a list that included non-Academy members Tony Hawk, Kelly Slater, Shaun White, and DJ Khaled. To say the reactions haven't been kind would be an obvious understatement.

Lost in all of this is that it's arguably the most competitive Oscar race in years. Best Picture is a legitimate toss-up: half of the ten nominees have a path to victory. Best Actress is a coin flip. Best Original Screenplay is a complete unknown. Best Animated Film? Best Editing? Best Cinematography? Best Original Score? While there are legitimate frontrunners in each category, it's equally likely one or all of those will feature a jaw-dropping upset.

What do we know? Best Director will go to a woman for the second time in a row and the third this century: Jane Campion. As the only two-time female nominee in this category, a win for her is as close to a certainty as there is.

Ariana DeBose is a lock for Best Supporting Actress for West Side Story — there's zero question about that. Will Smith will likely snag Best Actor for King Richard, while Troy Kotsur should win Best Supporting Actor for his work in CODA. Dune is almost certain to dominate the majority of the technical categories, and it's hard not to believe Cruella will be strutting down the Best Costume Design catwalk, Oscar in hand.

As for the rest? While I'm going to make my predictions, I can't say I trust the majority of them. Best Picture is an absolute crapshoot: while I'm leaning toward The Power of the Dog, it's hard not to shake the feeling that CODA, King Richard, Belfast, West Side Story, or even Don't Look Up could pull off an upset.

As for Best Actress, my heart is still firmly behind Kristin Stewart and her mesmerizing Spencer performance, but my head says this is Chastain's Oscar to lose, though Nicole Kidman may pull off an upset for her work as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos.

Here are my predictions for the 94th annual Academy Awards in all 23 categories. If I get more than 16 of them correct this year, I'll be legitimately surprised.

BEST PICTURE
Belfast
CODA
Don't Look Up
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story
Prediction: The Power of the Dog

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)
Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)
Prediction: Campion

BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
Andrew Garfield (tick, tick...BOOM!)
Will Smith (King Richard)
Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)
Prediction: Smith

BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
Penélope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)
Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)
Kristen Stewart (Spencer)
Prediction: Chastain

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)
Troy Kotsur (CODA)
Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog)
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)
J.K. Simmons (Being the Ricardos)
Prediction: Kotsur

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)
Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Judi Dench (Belfast)
Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog)
Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)
Prediction: DeBose

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Belfast
Don't Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
The Worst Person in the World
Prediction: Belfast

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
CODA
Drive My Car
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog
Prediction: CODA

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Drive My Car
Flee
The Hand of God
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
The Worst Person in the World
Prediction: Drive My Car

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story
Prediction: The Power of the Dog

BEST EDITING
Don't Look Up
Dune
King Richard
The Power of the Dog
tick, tick...BOOM!
Prediction: Dune

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story
Prediction: Nightmare Alley

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story
Prediction: Cruella

BEST SOUND
Belfast
Dune
No Time to Die
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story
Prediction: Dune

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Coming 2 America
Cruella
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci
Prediction: The Eyes of Tammy Faye

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Don't Look Up
Dune
Encanto
Parallel Mothers
The Power of the Dog
Prediction: Encanto

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Down to Joy" (Belfast)
"Dos Oruguitas" (Encanto)
"Somehow You Do" (Four Good Days)
"Be Alive" (King Richard)
"No Time to Die" (No Time to Die)
Prediction: "Dos Oruguitas" (Encanto)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dune
Free Guy
No Time to Die
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Prediction: Dune

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Ascension
Attica
Flee
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Writing with Fire
Prediction: Flee

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Audible
Lead Me Home
The Queen of Basketball
Three Songs for Benazir
When We Were Bullies
Prediction: When We Were Bullies

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon
Prediction: Encanto

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Affairs of the Ant
Beast
Boxballet
Robin Robin
The Windshield Wiper
Prediction: Beast

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
Ala Kachuu - Take and Run
The Dress
The Long Goodbye
On My Mind
Please Hold
Prediction: The Long Goodbye