So, 39 songs were qualified for eligibility in this year’s Best Original Song race. 39. That’s one short of 40. But apparently 37 of them just weren’t good enough for the sound branch, as the category turned up two — yes, two — contenders. And one of them is dubious at best, while the other appears now to be entering a cake walk for the win.

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Of all the crafts categories, Best Film Editing always tends to parallel the Best Picture race the most, both in the nominations stage and again during the race for the win. This year’s final five fit squarely into that paradigm.

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This year’s Best Costume Design category features the two nomination-leading Best Picture nominees, and three films nominated in no other category — including two well-dressed critical bombs. We consider what will win, and what should.

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I have no idea what’s going to win the Best Documentary Feature category. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I might as well get that out of the way right at the top. And I’ve even seen each film twice. It’s a rare year that sees such solid arguments in favor of each and every nominee of the bunch. That’s not to say that, personally speaking, each nominee is award-worthy, but I could just see the Academy’s doc voters falling for any of them.

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After gradually reducing finalists from fifteen to ten to five, the visual effects branch made room for four blockbusters this year – three of them from franchises – as well as the nominations leader. This is hardly the sort of lineup that could be considered shocking. Still, another Best Picture contender was left off, while the fourth entries in three other franchises came up short, as did one additional summer blockbuster.

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The Live Action Short Oscar has set many a successful director on their way, from Taylor Hackford to Andrea Arnold — but is there such a talent in this year’s lineup? We examine the nominees, saying who will win — and who should.

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The nomination race for the Best Makeup category was a competitive one, leaving us with one fantasy franchise never before recognized in the category, and two prosthetic feats in service of Best Actress-nominated performance. We break down their chances.

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The sound categories really were interesting and all over the place this year. In the sound editing field, we have just two of the nine Best Picture nominees represented, one surprise (for some) show for a Cannes hit that was expected to show up elsewhere, a franchise entry that deserves more love than it’ll get and a tip of the hat to a Best Picture snubee that actually showed up in both sound fields.

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For the second year in a row the documentary short nominees will be included in Shorts International/Magnolia Pictures’ theatrical program of Oscar-nominated shorts. The films release as a package in 200 theaters nationwide on Friday, February 10.

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This is one of the year’s hardest technical categories to predict, largely because the Academy’s sound branch agreed with the Cinema Audio Society on only two nominees. We size up who might win, and who should.

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While the music branch’s choices (or lack thereof) in Best Original Song could be considered shocking, the opposite was true about their final five in Best Original Score. Three of the titles are Best Picture nominees, the branch’s favorite composer of all time is double-nominated yet again and all but one of the finalists have been nominated previously.

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This year’s Best Supporting Actor race seemed to settle in rather early on. The eventual five nominees were all considered formidable as far back as September and nothing really came along to significantly alter the landscape. The one “surprise” came in the form of a contender popping up who had been expected to fall the way of his film. Well, ultimately he did.

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Best Foreign Language Film is a category where Academy voters often like to ignore the precursors and go off-script, but with frontrunner “A Separation” so far ahead of its competitors in terms of acclaim and buzz, will they do so again this year? We discuss what will win, and what should.

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Best Picture nominees “The Artist” and “Midnight in Paris” seem to be vying for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, but the other other nominees make for a pleasingly diverse and international field. We examine the field, saying who deserves to win, and who probably will.

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A script is a film’s blueprint, making it unsurprising that most of the nominees in this category have historically also been nominated for Best Picture. This year was no exception, with three of the final five adapted screenplay contenders also chalked up as the year’s best films. Room was also made for a particularly challenging adaptation of a classic novel and a star-studded film with no other nominations.

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Early on in the season it was decided that a full slate of five nominees in the Best Animated Feature Film category would be allowed, as there were at least 16 qualifying titles. However, that didn’t necessary mean there WOULD be five, as the scoring system within the branch might still have yielded less that were deemed worthy. But in the end, five managed to surface after all.

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US audiences will get a chance to see the Oscar-nominated shorts again this year as Shorts International (via ShortsHD) and Magnolia Pictures will be launching its popular program for the seventh-straight year. The nominees for animation, live action and documentaries will hit theaters for a limited time on February 16. But this year’s crop of contenders in the animated field is a bit thin compared to years past, I feel.

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Four first-timers, Bérénice Bejo, Jessica Chastain, Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer, join previous nominee Janet McTeer in the Best Supporting Actress Oscar race. We weigh up their chances, and decide who deserves to win.

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