A'ight, time to discuss the Oscars, and not just the Best Visual Effects category.

Best Picture

La La Land, all the way. It was everything that I wanted it to be, and a perfect nostalgic throwback. It has a pretty good chance of winning, since the Academy really likes movies about movies. There's something really timeless about it, like Fahrenheit 451, which is a book about books.

Best Director

Anyone but Villeneuve. Arrival wasn't bad, but it was overrated. Personally, I'm kind of rooting for Mel Gibson to make a comeback, but I'm not expecting him to win. I'm honestly surprised to see him nominated in the first place. The most probable winner in this category is either Barry Jenkins or Dennis Chazelle...honestly, I'm thinking Chazelle. Seriously, every single creative decision in La La Land took a lot of wisdom to pull off, and it was an incredibly difficult film to make. Very rarely does someone make that kind of film well, let along excellently.

For the record, last year I strongly rooted for George Miller for similar reasons. There are occasionally action movies that are good, but only once in a generation to you get a true masterpiece. Every single moment of Fury Road required excellent directing, and there was no moment in that movie where Miller could be on autopilot. It was a symphony of action, that required every single instrument to be fine-tuned and the most perfect attention to detail in order to make it what it was. He managed to keep what was essentially one giant chase scene interesting and suspenseful from beginning to finish, which is incredibly difficult to do.

Screenplays

I haven't seen everything in these categories, but I don't think that La La Land deserves to win. What made La La Land amazing was its directing, not its story. Not that it had a bad story, but I just don't see it winning Best Original Screenplay. Maybe Manchester by the sea? Maybe. But honestly, after looking up the plots to all of these films, I really have to go with The Lobster. Just the pitch alone is creative enough that it should win.

What surprises me is that Swiss Army Man isn't in this category. I was really thinking that it might have been nominated in this category, but apparently not. Also, Zootopia, which shouldn't win Best Animated Picture due to a certain piece of competition (more on that later), but deserves to be recognized in this category. Those two, should have knocked off HeII or High Water and La La Land.

Last year was overall stronger in this category.

As far as adapted screenplays go, Fences looks the best, although I didn't see it. I almost watched it, but I couldn't arrange a date where I could go see it with my friends. I wouldn't be surprised if Arrival won in this category, though. Though I wasn't the hugest fan, it is nice to see science fiction win in this category.

(Side note: several years ago, Argo won in this category, which it clearly shouldn't have when it came out the same year as Lincoln. I'm still miffed about that to this day.)

Acting

I have to admit that in the acting category, I'm sort of rooting for a #AllBlackOscars. Every single one of the categories has a black actor, and I'm curious to see what the social ramifications would be if those were the people who happened to win. That means that I'm all for Denzel Washington getting Best Actor (even though it will probably go to Casey Affleck), Ruth Negga for Best Actress (even though it will probably go to Emma Stone), Mahershala Ali for Best Supporting Actor (it might actually go to him), and Viola Davis for Best Supporting Actress (my bets are on her, too).

For once, the field for Best Actress is more interesting than the field for Best Actor, which doesn't happen too often. My only real complaint there is that I'm getting sick of Meryl Streep getting nominated every year. Please, anyone but her. Someone else could have got that recognition, but when the Academy nominated Meryl Streep, what it's really doing it patting itself on the back. She always says good things about the Academy, and she's the ultimate insider. I don't hate her, but seriously, I'm getting tired of seeing her always getting nominated. It's not cool anymore. I used to think that she was the best actress ever, especially when I saw her excellent performance in the otherwise "meh" movie The Iron Lady, but then she got nominated for Best Actress in August: Osage County. Fair enough, since it was a tour-de-force performance, and she dominated the screen, but Julia Roberts got nominated for Best Supporting Actress, when she played the main character. That seemed to be awfully prejudiced of the Academy. And then they nominated Meryl Streep for Best Supporting Actress in Into the Woods. Really? It was at that point that I realized that, as talented as Meryl Streep is, she is in fact overrated, and I'm no longer the fan that I was when I first discovered her. Some people are absolutely worthy of being nominated for stuff again and again. John WIlliams is one of those people. However, not every Meryl Streep performance deserves to be ranked in the top five of every year.

Also, although I really like Natalie Portman, and she's even one of my favorite actresses, I don't want her to win this year. She didn't seem like the perfect choice to play Jackie Kennedy, and she never convinced me that she was actually said historical figure. It's cool to see that she got nominated and that her career is still going strong, but I still think that her casting was completely uninspired. Incidentally, I can think of another Natalie that would have been perfect for that role, Natalie Wood, but unfortunately she's dead.

Can you imagine if Janelle Monae played the lead character in La La Land? She already had a strong year, being in Moonlight and Hidden Figures, where she gave good performances, and I also know that she's a performer who can dance and sing, so she would have actually been a good choice to play La La Land's Mia Dolan. Can you imagine that? That would have been awesome! I can totally see Janelle Monae getting an Oscar! Ah well, wishful thinking.

Editing

La La Land. I've seen it three times, now. It has a lot of long takes, but it also has a strong understanding of when to edit. Chazelle was pretty intelligent with his creative decisions.

Cinematography

La La Land, again. The long shots are incredibly amazing and well-plotted-out. The color is likewise absolutely amazing.

Also, Kubo and the Two Strings should have been nominated.

Score

La La Land, for obvious reasons. It's not only the best score of this year, but the best score in several years.

Song

City of Stars. My sister loves that song.

Sound Mixing and Editing

Sound mixing: Hacksaw Ridge or 13 Hours. I'm a bit biased towards war films in this category.

Sound editing: Yikes! Very strong field this year! Along with Best Actress, this should be one of the more interesting races to watch. I honestly don't know who to root for, or who to expect.

Animated Film

Kubo and the Two Strings. Simply gorgeous. Simple story, but it feels timeless.

Makeup and Hairstyling

Why does this category still only ever have three nominees in it? Anyway, not a very strong category this year. Some might argue with me on that, but I've thought that past years were a bit better, particularly 2014. Anyway, Suicide Squad and Star Trek Beyond had a few characters who were uniquely designed, but I don't necessarily think of those films as having excellent makeup and hairstyling overall. I'll go with Suicide Squad this year.

Costume Design

I love this category! The movies that got nominated this year also all made sense. Florence Foster Jenkins and La La Land both have a lot of costumes from classical show business, and Jackie, quite naturally, being about a fashion icon makes sense. However, I'm rooting for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I didn't watch this movie, specifically because J.K. Rowling once said that Harry Potter wasn't a franchise, but a single story. and feel a little annoyed that she's caved and turned it into exactly what she said that it wasn't. However, do I believe that it deserves to win for best costume design? From what I've seen, definitely. I absolutely love it when sci-fi and fantasy win in this category, because really those are the genres that deserve it the most, since they require costume designers to actually invent new fashions from scratch. I like more creative and imaginative stuff in this category.

Trivia: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone got nominated in this category back in 2001, along with The Fellowship of the Ring, but they both lost to Moulin Rouge!. Yikes! That was a tough year. This year I don't think that Harry Potter That Movie With a J.K. Rowling Screenplay has as tough of competition.

Production Design

The Jungle Book deserves to be on this list. They created a giant artificial jungle and managed to convince us that it was the real thing. How cool is that? It should have bumped off Arrival. Otherwise, eh, I like what all has been nominated this year, but I'm not particularly opinionated on who should win.

Foreign Language Film

Good chance that it will be A Man Called Ove, since it got nominated for another Oscar, Best Makeup and Hairstyling. It would be interesting if Tanna won, simply because I've never heard of the Nauvhal language. Nothing stands out to me as something as amazing as Life Is Beautiful. Movies like that are pretty rare, and we haven't had one of those in a while. This category is beginning to interest me more than in the past, since I have a ton of foreign language films on VHS, and my friend and I watch foreign language films on Netflix wh8enever we hang out.

Alas, there has yet to be a film in Lojban, let alone one nominated for the Academy Awards. Wouldn't that be awesome?