When Oscar voting started, we asked you to imagine yourselves as Academy members, with Oscar ballots in hand, and cast your own choices for who you’d want to see win at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2nd. Over 1800 of you voted in the short period from when voting started on February 11th and ran until February 18th at 8 pm ET. We used preferential balloting for Best Picture, and all other categories were done using a plural voting system.
In the last four years we’ve conducted this experiment with the community, your personal preferences have matched with the eventual Academy Award winners this many times…
2019: 15/24
2020: 16/23
2021: 15/23
2022: 16/23
2023: 19/23
Will any of these translate on Oscar night? Please take a look at the Next Best Picture team’s latest predictions here and check our winners here.
And the (imaginary) Oscar goes to…
Best Picture
1. “Anora“
2. “I’m Still Here”
3. “Dune: Part Two”
4. “The Brutalist”
5. “The Substance”
6. “Emilia Pérez”
7. “Conclave”
8. “Nickel Boys”
9. “Wicked”
10. “A Complete Unknown“
Best Director
Jacques Audiard – “Emilia Pérez”
Brady Corbet – “The Brutalist”
Sean Baker – “Anora” (RUNNER-UP)
Coralie Fargeat – “The Substance” (WINNER)
James Mangold – “A Complete Unknown“
Best Actress
Cynthia Erivo – “Wicked”
Karla Sofía Gascón – “Emilia Pérez”
Mikey Madison – “Anora” (RUNNER-UP)
Demi Moore – “The Substance”
Fernanda Torres – “I’m Still Here” (WINNER)
Best Actor
Adrien Brody – “The Brutalist” (RUNNER-UP)
Timothée Chalamet – “A Complete Unknown”
Colman Domingo – “Sing Sing”
Ralph Fiennes – “Conclave” (WINNER)
Sebastian Stan – “The Apprentice“
Best Supporting Actress
Monica Barbaro – “A Complete Unknown”
Ariana Grande – “Wicked” (WINNER)
Felicity Jones – “The Brutalist”
Isabella Rossellini – “Conclave” (RUNNER-UP)
Zoe Saldaña – “Emilia Pérez”
Best Supporting Actor
Yura Borisov – “Anora” (RUNNER-UP)
Kieran Culkin – “A Real Pain” (WINNER)
Edward Norton – “A Complete Unknown”
Guy Pearce – “The Brutalist”
Jeremy Strong – “The Apprentice“
Best Adapted Screenplay
“A Complete Unknown”
“Conclave” (WINNER)
“Emilia Pérez”
“Nickel Boys” (RUNNER-UP)
“Sing Sing“
Best Original Screenplay
“Anora” (WINNER)
“The Brutalist”
“A Real Pain”
“September 5”
“The Substance” (RUNNER-UP)
Best Animated Feature
“Flow” (WINNER)
“Inside Out 2”
“Memoir of a Snail”
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
“The Wild Robot” (RUNNER-UP)
Best Documentary Feature
“Black Box Diaries”
“No Other Land” (WINNER)
“Porcelain War”
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” (RUNNER-UP)
“Sugarcane“
Best International Feature Film
France, “Emilia Pérez”
Latvia, “Flow” (RUNNER-UP)
Denmark, “The Girl with the Needle”
Brazil, “I’m Still Here” (WINNER)
Germany, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig“
Best Cinematography
“The Brutalist”
“Dune: Part Two” (WINNER)
“Emilia Pérez”
“Maria”
“Nosferatu” (RUNNER-UP)
Best Costume Design
“A Complete Unknown”
“Conclave”
“Gladiator II”
“Nosferatu” (RUNNER-UP)
“Wicked” (WINNER)
Best Film Editing
“Anora“ (WINNER)
“The Brutalist”
“Conclave” (RUNNER-UP)
“Emilia Pérez”
“Wicked“
Best Make-Up & Hairstyling
“A Different Man“
“Emilia Pérez”
“Nosferatu”
“The Substance” (WINNER)
“Wicked” (RUNNER-UP)
Best Production Design
“The Brutalist“
“Conclave”
“Dune: Part Two” (RUNNER-UP)
“Nosferatu”
“Wicked” (WINNER)
Best Original Score
“The Brutalist” (WINNER)
“Conclave“ (RUNNER-UP)
“Emilia Pérez”
“Wicked”
“The Wild Robot”
Best Original Song
“Elton John: Never Too Late“ – “Never Too Late”
“Emilia Pérez” – “El Mal” (RUNNER-UP)
“Emilia Pérez” – “Mi Camino”
“Sing Sing” – “Like A Bird” (WINNER)
“The Six Triple Eight“ – “The Journey”
Best Sound
“A Complete Unknown”
“Dune: Part Two” (WINNER)
“Emilia Pérez”
“Wicked“ (RUNNER-UP)
“The Wild Robot”
Best Visual Effects
“Alien: Romulus”
“Better Man” (RUNNER-UP TIE)
“Dune: Part Two“ (WINNER)
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
“Wicked“ (RUNNER-UP TIE)
Best Animated Short Film
“Beautiful Men”
“Magic Candies”
“In the Shadow of the Cypress”
“Yuck!” (WINNER)
“Wander to Wonder” (RUNNER-UP)
Best Documentary Short Film
“Death by Numbers”
“I Am Ready, Warden”
“Incident“ (RUNNER-UP)
“Instruments of a Beating Heart”
“The Only Girl in the Orchestra” (WINNER)
Live Action Short Film
“A Lien”
“Anuja“
“I’m Not a Robot“ (WINNER)
“The Last Ranger”
“The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent” (RUNNER-UP)
WIN TALLY
Anora – 3
Dune: Part Two – 3
Wicked – 3
Conclave – 2
I’m Still Here – 2
The Substance – 2
The Brutalist – 1
Flow – 1
I’m Not a Robot – 1
No Other Land – 1
The Only Girl In The Orchestra – 1
A Real Pain – 1
Sing Sing – 1
Yuck! – 1
A few quick things to note…
- “Anora” won in the final round of voting against “I’m Still Here” and it was very close. Walter Salles’s film had the most no. 1 votes to start but as the voting went on, “Anora” placed higher on most ballots which gave it the victory in the end.
- The highest vote getters overall were “I’m Still Here” for Best International Feature Film (68.3% of the total vote), “Dune: Part Two” for Best Sound and Visual Effects (67.8% and 67.4% of the total vote, respectively) and “The Substance” for Best Makeup & Hairstyling (66.1% of the total vote)
- The closest race overall was Best Actor with Ralph Fiennes barely beating out Adrien Brody by only 35 votes.
- The next closest above-the-line race was Best Animated Feature with “Flow” beating out “The Wild Robot” by 58 votes.
- The closest below-the-line race was “Dune: Part Two” winning Best Cinematography over “Nosferatu” by 82 votes.
- “I’m Not a Robot” received the most votes overall in the short categories with 34.3% of the total vote but all the shorts races were very close.
What do you think of the winners? Do you think any of these will translate to the actual Oscar winners on March 2nd? Please check out the NBP Team’s Winners here. Please let us know your thoughts on our X account and be sure to listen to our final Oscar predictions podcast episode here. Please click here for more important upcoming dates this awards season and here for the most recent tally of awards season winners for the current year.
