Oscar Predictions 2023: Who Will Win In Every Category

HOLLYWOOD, CA — The 95th Academy Awards will take place Sunday night in recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements for the year 2022. So, get ready to celebrate Hollywood’s biggest night and see if your predictions hit the mark.

But first, is your bubbly ready?

Will the juggernaut nomination leader "Everything Everywhere All at Once" win Best Picture? Or will the epic “All Quiet on the Western Front” prevail, instead, to win the Academy’s most coveted prize? Will Austin Butler, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jaimee Lee Curtis win the evening’s top acting prizes? We’re all dying to find out.

In the meantime, we have compiled a breakdown of our own Oscar winner predictions in all 23 categories.

Related:

Academy Awards 2023: How To Watch, Nominations And More

2023 Oscar Winner Predictions

Best Picture

Patch Prediction: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Having swept eight of the other nine guilds, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is well-poised to be the likeliest winner in the Best Picture category. However, the anti-war “All Quiet on the Western Front” still poses the main threat to the multiverse-spanning film due to the Academy’s controversial preferential ballot — each voter ranks the nominees in order of preference, rather than choosing only one to be the winner. In the end, the crux of the question lies in the polarizing yet crowd-pleasing nature of “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” You love the film’s baffling plot or hate it.

Best Director

Patch Prediction: Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

The trailblazing auteurs Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, who go by the sobriquet Daniels, are heavily favored to take home the Oscar, having won Best Director at the Directors Guild Awards (DGA). For the past 74 years, except in seven occasions, the DGA’s top prize winner has gone on to win the Oscars’ Best Director award. Besides, auteurs — such as the likes of previous Best Director winners Jane Campion, Chloe Zhao, Bong Jon Hoo, Ang Lee, Alfonso Cuaron and A.G. Iñárritu — tend to fare better in this category.

Best Actor

Patch Prediction: Austin Butler, “Elvis”

The Best Actor race has become quite a showdown between Austin Butler in the biopic “Elvis” and Brendan Fraser in the drama-redemption “The Whale.” Butler won at the Golden Globes and BAFTA, while Fraser won at the Critics Choice and SAG Awards. Nevertheless, this award is Butler’s to lose, as he stars in a Best Picture nominated film. For the past 13 years, a Best Actor nominee from a Best Picture nominee has gone on to take home the Oscar.

Best Actress

Patch Prediction: Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Thespians Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett are both equally deserving of a win in this category. Yeoh won the Globes, SAG and Spirit Awards, while Blanchett won the Globes, Critics Choice and BAFTA. Blanchett appears to have the advantage in this category, having two prior wins in the Oscars acting categories. However, Yeoh’s win would be historic as she will be hailed as the first-ever Asian-identifying Oscar winner in the Best Actress category — so, Yeoh for the win.

Best Supporting Actor

Patch Prediction: Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

This award is Ke Huy Quan's to lose, having won all bellwether acting awards— except BAFTA, which Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) won. Plus, the range and depth of his performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is dizzyingly amazing.

Best Supporting Actress

Patch Prediction: Jamie Lee Curtis

This category is the toughest acting category to predict as a trio of frontrunners are equally deserving of a win. Jamie Lee Curtis won SAG, while Kerry Condon won BAFTA, and Angela Bassett won the Globes. If history were to determine the winner, Curtis is poised to take the Oscar as the SAG winner has gone on to win Oscars Best Actress 17 times since 2000. Besides, Curtis hails from Hollywood royalty.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Patch Prediction: “All Quiet on the Western Front”

For the past five years, the BAFTA’s winner in this category has gone on to win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, so “All Quiet on the Western Front” —the BAFTA winner — is the leading contender. However, “Women Talking,” which won the WGA, could possibly steal it.

Best Original Screenplay

Patch Prediction: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

The Best Picture-winning film has won the Best Original Screenplay 10 times for the past 13 years. Furthermore, it has been five years since a Best Picture winner did not win best Original Screenplay, so if “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is predicted to take home the Best Picture Oscar, it would be the top contender for the Best Original Screenplay category.

Best Animated Feature

Patch Prediction: Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio”

Having swept all precursor awards for animation, Del Toro’s “Pinocchio” is poised to win in this category.

Best Documentary Feature

Patch Prediction: “Navalny”

It has been a three-way race during the entire awards season. HBO Max’s “Navalny” won PGA and BAFTA, while Neon’s “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” won the Spirit Award and “Fire of Love” won DGA. “Navalny” is a documentary about a Russian resistance leader hailed as a hero. Coming at the height of an anti-Putin sentiment, the film both echoes and captures the political sentiment of the moment.

Best International Feature

Patch Prediction: “All Quiet on the Western Front”

“All Quiet on the Western Front” is a slam-dunk winner in this category, because it is the only foreign film that is also nominated for Best Picture.

Best Cinematography

Patch Prediction: “All Quiet on the Western Front”

Nine of the last 10 BAFTA winners in this category went on to win Oscars’ Best Cinematography, so BAFTA winner “All Quiet on the Western Front” should win in this category. However, “Elvis” could still pull an upset, considering it won the American Society of Cinematographers’ (ASC) top honor.

Best Costume Design

Patch Prediction: “Elvis”

The Oscar winner in this category has won BAFTA’s Costume Design 12 times in the last 14 years, so naturally BAFTA winner “Elvis” should win this prize for costume designer Catherine Martin. Her biggest competition? Ruth Carter— the costume designer for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”— who won this award in 2018 for “Black Panther.”

“Best Film Editing”

Patch Prediction: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Having won BAFTA, Critics Choice, and American Cinema Editors (ACE), “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is heavily favored to win in this category. However, it is still highly probable that “Top Gun: Maverick” could take home the Oscar, given that its aerial action sequences required extensive editing to make them seamlessly realistic.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Patch Prediction: “The Whale”

Previous winners in this category — such as “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Bombshell,” “Vice,” “Darkest Hour” and “Iron Lady” — had one major character with massive transformation. Brendan Fraser’s transformation in “The Whale” is jaw-dropping. Dare we say more?

Best Original Score

Patch Prediction: “All Quiet on the Western Front”

It’s a two-way race between “Babylon” and “All Quiet on the Western Front.” The former won Golden Globes, while the latter won BAFTA. For the past 19 years, except in one occasion, the Oscar winner in this category has gone to a Best Picture nominee. In this case, since “All Quiet on the Western Front” is nominated for Best Picture, it is more favored to win Best Original Score.

Best Original Song

Patch Prediction: “Hold My Hand,” “Top Gun: Maverick”

Many might think that since “Naatu Naatu” won Golden Globes and Critics Choice in this category, the infectious song of the Indian film “RRR” will have this award in the bag. But unfortunately, the film is not nominated for any other awards. For sentimentality’s sake, we’ll go out on a limb for “Hold My Hand,” as “Take My Breath Away” won this prize for the original “Top Gun” 37 years prior.

Best Production Design

Patch Prediction: “Babylon”

“Babylon” won BAFTA, Critics Choice and Art Directors Guild (ADG) in this category, so we predict that “Babylon” production designer Florencia Martin will prevail in this category for her epic creation of Golden Age Hollywood. “Elvis” production designer Catherine Martin could still possibly beat Florencia given that Martin has twice won this prize.

Best Sound

Patch Prediction: “Top Gun: Maverick”

Since 2009, the Best Sound winner also won Best Visual Effects five out of six times. This year, the only film nominated for both Sound and Visual Effects is none other than “Top Gun: Maverick.”

Best Visual Effects

Patch Prediction: “Avatar: The Way of Water”

Having won the Visual Effects Society awards, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is heavily favored to win in this category thirteen years after the original “Avatar” won this award in 2010.

Best Animated Short

Patch Prediction: “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”

Because of Apple’s relentless promotion of the movie, we’ll call a win for “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” on a hunch.

Best Documentary Short

Patch Prediction: “Stranger at the Gate”

The heart-tugging story of one military man’s path to kindness and redemption is one for the ages that can easily win you over.

Best Live-Action Short

Patch Prediction: “An Irish Goodbye”

“An Irish Goodbye” is the sole nominee in the English language, so we’ll call a win for directors Tom Berkeley and Ross White’s film about male grief.