Oscar Podcast #80: Final Oscar predictions with The Oscar Expert and Brother Bro

It’s hard to believe but this is the first, and only, Oscar podcast I’ve done for this extended and wild Oscar season. I’ve guested on quite a few in recents months but had opted out of doing my own during this period. That ends today as I am joined by two young upstarts in the Oscar prediction community who’ve really blown up in the last couple of years: The Oscar Expert (Cole) and Brother Bro (Justin). I’ve had the pleasure of being a guest on their show twice and it was time I returned the favor.

In this podcast, which was also recorded as a video (see below or on the AW YouTube page), the three of us go over what an exceptional year its been and we finally near the big finale of the 93rd Academy Awards. We address the last-minute frontrunner hit pieces that fell at Nomadland‘s feet, take on every single category in depth and make our cases in some of the tough categories like Best Actress, which I saved until just before Best Picture.

You can find The Oscar Expert on his popular YouTube channel (here) where he and Brother Bro have dropped their final Oscar predictions, which were recorded before this podcast. You can also find them on Twitter @expert_oscar and @withbrotherbro.

This podcast is sponsored by the Apple Original Film Wolfwalkers, Academy Award Nominee for Best Animated Feature. A girl goes to Ireland with her father to track the last pack of wolves and undergoes a magical transformation. Go to fyc.appletvplus.com for more.

This is the breakdown of categories and time stamps for this Final Oscar Predictions podcast.

• 0:00 – 0:22 – Apple TV+ Wolfwalkers sponsorship announcement
• 0:22 – 0:37 – Wolfwalkers advertisement
• 0:37 – 1:00 – “and the Oscar goes to…”
• 1:00 – 8:00 – State of the Race, fake ‘Nomadland’ controversies, anonymous Oscar ballots
• 8:00 – 13:45 – Live Action Short
• 13:45 – 16:50 – Documentary Short Subject
• 16:50 – 20:10 – Animated Short
• 20:10 – 23:20 – International Feature Film
• 23:20 – 29:10 Documentary Feature/Netflix domination of below the line nominations
• 29:10 – 30:40 – Animated Feature
• 30:40 – 32:15 Visual Effects
• 32:15 – 36:00 – Sound
• 36:00 – 42:40 – Original Song
• 42:40 – 44:25 – Original Score
• 44:25 – 47:00 – Makeup and Hairstyling
• 47:00 – 48:10 – Costume Design
• 48:10 – 51:45 – Production Design*
• 51:45 – 54:20 – Cinematography/Oscars being shot on film
• 54:20 – 58:40 – Film Editing
• 58:40 – 1:02:00 – Original Screenplay
• 1:02:00 – 1:05:40 –  Adapted Screenplay/Female screenwriter Oscar winners
• 1:05:40 – 1:13:10 – Supporting Actress/What is Oscar bait now/New Academy members
• 1:13:10 – 1:16:30 – Supporting Actor
• 1:16:30 – 1:26:10 – Best Actor/BAFTA talk
• 1:26:10 – 1:28:50 – Best Director
• 1:28:50 – 1:44:40 –  Best Actress
• 1:44:40 – 1:53:25 – Best Picture/closing thoughts/win we want to see the most
• 1:53:25 – 1:53:55 – Wolfwalkers advertisement

*One correction: in the discussion of Production Design I mention a stat about the last film to be Best Picture-nominated and then only win Production Design was 1953’s Julius Caesar. I was wrong, it’s 1978’s Heaven Can Wait.

With intro and exit, this podcast runs 1h 53m 30s