We love watching movies. We’ve watched the Oscars since we were both kids, and are large film consumers. This year, we decided to rank some of the most popular Oscar categories based on what films we believed should take home the title and which ones we think will end up with the title.

Best Picture

Nominees:

• All Quiet on the Western Front, Malte Grunert, Producer
• Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• The Banshees of Inisherin, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers
• Elvis, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, Producers
• Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, Producers
• The Fabelmans, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, Producers — should and will win
• Tár, Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, Producers
• Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, Producers
• Triangle of Sadness, Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, Producers
• Women Talking, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, Producers

The Fabelmans is an all around outstanding film, finding a way to appeal to an audience of all ages. It covers the coming-of-age genre all the way to “family drama” as it works to tell the story of Speilberg’s life. We learn about the hardships he faced and the foundation that created the icon society knows today. This is not only the best contender to win Best Picture, but most deserving of the title, too. Speilberg does it again, with another picture that manages to capture the audience like a trance they simply can’t escape for the two and a half hours it is on the screen. The Fabelemans best represents the work in film that should be celebrated, both for the story it tells and the overall production quality. From the acting to the score, this film doesn’t have any let downs. 

Best Director 

Nominees:

• Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin) 
• Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once) — will win
• Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans) — should win
• Todd Field (Tár) 
• Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness)

Now for Best Director we believe that Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert will win for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” because of the unique and crazed style the film takes on. It is different from anything else produced this year, and for that it deserves some praise. It owns the work it does and completely embraces everything (no pun intended), so the direction had a clear cut way. However, it was not the best because we feel like the film just tried to be out there and that was its main character trait. It was annoying because the direction didn’t always have to be confusing, but it was just so extra. 

Although we do believe that Steven Speilberg should win for “The Fabelmans” because of his work in taking a personal narrative and morphing it into a story that everyone can see pieces of themselves in. It takes a talent to not only come up with a good story idea that catches an audience, but one that engages the audience to a level where they can relate with a biographical story, which takes even more talent and is worthy of the Oscar

Best Lead Actor

Nominees:

• Austin Butler (Elvis) — should win
• Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin) — will win
• Brendan Fraser (The Whale) 
• Paul Mescal (Aftersun) 
• Bill Nighy (Living) 

This award will most likely go to Colin Farrell for “The Banshees of Inisherin” because of his raw performance that he gives the audience. As one of just three main actors in a film, it takes more effort than anyone can imagine to keep the audience’s attention in such a movie. Still, Farrell does a good job of maintaining a likeability with the audience that keeps the film interesting even with the minimal characters and variety. 

Even with Farrell’s performance, we think that Austin Butler for “Elvis” should take the cake. That’s due to his stellar interpretation of Elvis. The entire film surrounds Butler as he plays the icon that society has known for decades. As the film progresses, you forget that Butler is not in fact the real Elvis–his skills are so detailed that it becomes a consuming experience. This was a performance that is most worthy of the Oscar.

Best Lead Actress

Nominees:

• Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) — should and will win
• Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) 
• Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”)
• Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”) 
• Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Cate Blanchett’s performance in “Tár” was outstanding. The movie itself was not our favorite, but looking strictly at performances she deserves the win, big time. We found it to be a tough movie to keep attention on, and if Blanchett was able to hold up that quality of a performance for a little over two and a half hours, then she needs the praise. 

Best Cinematography 

Nominees:

• “All Quiet on the Western Front”, James Friend — should and will win
• “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” Darius Khondji
• “Elvis,” Mandy Walker
• “Empire of Light,” Roger Deakins
• “Tár,” Florian Hoffmeister

When it comes down to cinematography, we believe that “All Quiet on the Western Front” is superior to all other movies. The cinematography throughout is beautiful with the shots being composed excellently. The lighting and the colors throughout the entire movie, as well as the camera movement, convey the tense and horrifying reality of war. Now whether you believe the movie should exist is up for debate, but what isn’t debatable is how jaw-droppingly beautiful this movie looks.

Best Production Design 

Nominees:

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper
• “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Production Design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; Set Decoration: Vanessa Cole — should and will win
• “Babylon,” Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino
• “Elvis,” Production Design: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; Set Decoration: Bev Dunn
• “The Fabelmans,” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara

There is so much happening in “Avatar: The Way of Water” that the PD stands out above the rest. This was an all-hands-on-deck movie by the looks of it, and it did not stop at any obstacles, hence the long wait for the film. Nonetheless, it was a massive production that one-upped the first movie, which we did not think would be an easy task to do. 

Best Original Score 

Nominees:

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Volker Bertelmann
• “Babylon,” Justin Hurwitz — should and will win
• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Carter Burwell
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Son Lux
• “The Fabelmans,” John Williams

If you have ever seen one of Damien Chazelle’s films, then you know he works with the best to create the score: Justin Hurwitz. “Babylon” is no exception. Hurwitz does some of his best work here, as the score perfectly encapsulates the chaos that describes the film. Each piece is tuned to fit the scene and works so well that we even came out of the theaters humming his tunes. 

Best Sound

Nominees:

• All Quiet on the Western Front, Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte — should and will win
• Avatar: The Way of Water, Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges
• The Batman, Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson
• Elvis, David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller
• Top Gun: Maverick, Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

We now come back to “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which we believe should also win for best sound. A good war film relies on the sound design to convey to the audience what’s going on,how the characters in the moment are feeling, and what pressures they’re under. “All Quiet on the Western Front” knocks this out of the ballpark with its amazing sound design. Sound can make or break a war movie, and it really made “All Quiet on the Western Front”. 

Best Visual Effects

Nominees

• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” 
• “Avatar: The Way of Water” — should and will win
• “Top Gun: Maverick”
• “All Quiet on the Western Front” 
• “The Batman” 
• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”

This one goes without saying. “Avatar: The Way of Water” easily deserves the win. The visual effects are like no other, so no wonder it took so long for the movies to be made. If you haven’t seen either of the “Avatar” movies, then it’s  worth at least one watch. 

Best Original Screenplay

Nominees:

• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert — will win
• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh — should win
• “Triangle of Sadness,” Ruben Östlund
• “The Fabelmans,” Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner
• “Tàr,” Todd Field

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is probably the most likely winner of the Best Original Screenplay award this year at the Oscars. If one were to look back at winners past, they would find a great deal of heartwarming stories with good old American values, like coming of age, reuniting families, and overcoming adversity on your own; a few of the themes that this screenplay gives more clearly than any other film on the list (even The Fablemans, a coming of age story named after the central family, ends with the main character walking away from his clan to pursue his own dreams). Because the film works with these rather comfortable themes in addition to the fact that the screenplay presents them in consistently new and surprising ways that will catch voter’s attention, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the most likely candidate to win best screenplay this year.

That being said, “The Banshees of Inisherin” is a screenplay of a caliber rarely written today. Because they’re exceptionally hard to make well, and because audiences are very unlikely to see them (our theater contained only us), “quiet epics”–the films in which nothing much happens but still somehow change your life–are rarely written today. Probably because of his background as a playwright, Martin McDonagh works exceptionally well in small, dialogue-driven pieces that present highly specific characters who cover all the big topics of being a human by the time the credits roll. While the aforementioned Everything concerns itself with strained parent-child relationships that are eventually fixed and even strengthened, Banshees covers a far more difficult-to-write-about pairing: friendship. And without giving too much away, McDonagh isn’t afraid to end with a downer. His characters are both unbelievable and just like someone you know, seemingly trapped in the past but also perfect for such modern actors as Colin Farell and Brendan Gleeson. This screenplay is one that builds tension without you even knowing–the story will hit you from behind, and by the time you get to the end, your views on friendliness, time, and how much attention you should really give to yourself will be challenged and expanded. As much as this film can pull at your heartstrings, it is, in the end, about ideas, about getting you to see your own life (where nothing much probably happens) in a new way and as part of a story that impacts everyone around you.