Who are you rooting for at the 2021 Oscars?

Emerald Fennell, Best Original Screenplay, Promising Young WomanIn an era of adaptations, sequels, and spinoffs, ’s completely original story was such a breath of tense air. Effortlessly subverting genre and expectations, was one of my top three scripts of the year. And while I’m thrilled the Crown actress is also nominated as a director and producer, I think Original Screenplay is Fennell’s best shot at walking away with a trophy on Sunday. (I’m hoping gets rewarded for a career-best performance as well.) [Patrick Gomez]

Time, Best DocumentaryThe documentary branch of the Academy is notorious for ignoring some of the best and most exciting nonfiction films made each year. (Reminder that Hoop Dreams wasn’t even nominated, despite remarkably making the, ahem, cut in the Best Editing category.) So it’s a genuine and welcome surprise to see Garrett Bradley’s , a.k.a. the best documentary of 2020, in contention. Bradley approaches the devastating true story of Fox Rich, who fought for two decades to appeal her husband’s extreme prison sentence, from a poetic/experiential angle—assembling home-video footage of Rich’s life in non-chronological order, the better to emphasize how she’s changed over the years and to express the toll all that, yes, time has taken on her family. It’s an unintuitive approach that sacrifices easy narrative clarity in favor of emotional logic. Which, of course, is probably why it won’t win. But like Rich, I’m holding out hope. [A.A. Dowd]

Erik Messerschmidt, Best Cinematography, MankI think I’m the only person on Earth that unequivocally loves , but it won’t win David Fincher his directing Oscar, nor should it. However, with its gradients of black, white, and gray running throughout every frame, the cinematography is absolutely stunning. Mank cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt nails the language of Orson Welles and cinematographer Gregg Toland, bringing it into a modern context with a bit of digital grain and some gorgeous HDR photography to marry old and new. Most importantly, it sells the film’s central theme exploring who gets to write history. In this case, it’s Messerschmidt, pulling from and rewriting film history as he and Fincher see fit. [Matt Schimkowitz]

LaKeith Stanfield, Best Supporting Actor, Judas And The Black MessiahFirst off, let’s acknowledge how weird it is that both of the title characters of somehow ended up duking it out in the Supporting Actor bucket. (Who’s the lead, the “And The”?) Also take it as read that Daniel Kaluuya is both vulnerable and charismatic in his portrayal of the Black Panther chairman himself. But LaKeith Stanfield is one of the most watchable actors I’ve encountered in recent years, and his portrayal of Bill O’Neal, the complicated figure at the heart of King’s film, is a great example of why. Ramping through multiple levels of deception (self- and otherwise) in every scene, Stanfield radiates energy, clinging to just enough of the audience’s sympathy to keep his character—simultaneously, the film implies, a true believer and a deadly traitor to his cause—on the knife’s edge of relatability. It’s in the eyes, for me: Stanfield is always watching: for danger, for opportunity, for the knife in the back, or the chance to slip in one of his own. The effect is hypnotic; give the man his award. [William Hughes]

Wolfwalkers, Best Animated FeatureDisney/Pixar’s stranglehold on the Best Animated Feature category has gone on for too long. Sure, every once in a while they let a Dreamworks project through, but it is simply not statistically possible that nine out of the 10 best animated films of the last decade all happened to come from one of L.A.’s biggest entertainment-industry employers. (Did I just crack the code?) Enter , a film whose narrative spin on Irish folklore and expressive, painterly animation style are everything that a test-marketed sequel designed to sell plush toys is not. This film is snarling and inspired, with leaves in its hair and wild beauty in its heart, and it will not win an Oscar, despite being distributed by another mega-corporation, Apple. [Katie Rife]

Another Round, Best International Feature FilmMads Mikkelsen was left out of the Best Actor race, and Thomas Vinterberg is the longest of long shots in Best Director. But I guess Best International Feature is a fitting consolation prize for , a tender, tragic, occasionally slapstick drama that manages to be startlingly honest in the face of its “What if you always had a little bit of a buzz on?” premise. The feeling of being at the end of this year-plus of moviegoing (and being on Earth) has no greater expression and/or aspirational model than what Mikkelsen and Vinterberg fling themselves into in Another Round’s closing moments. [Erik Adams]