Pan and Slam

click play above to listen to the article

by Jason Frank Koenigsberg

It is that time of the year again, The Oscars. The Superbowl for movie critics and film aficionados like myself. This year the 91st Academy Awards chose to honor goodness and not greatness with their nominations. Only two of the films on my best of the year list earned Best Picture nominations (Blackkklansman and Roma) and the rest of the films were either slightly above average or below average pictures released in the last three months of 2018. These are some of the most predictable nominations of recent years. But if you want to know what most likely will win so you can place your bets in an Oscar pool and what should win then proceed forward. As people have reminded me I am usually 75% to 80% percent correct with my predictions each year so that should bode some confidence in taking my advice. However, it is still the Academy Awards and as we have seen especially in recent years anything can happen. So without further ado, here are my picks for what will win at the 91st Academy Awards…

Best Picture

• Black Panther
• BlacKkKlansman
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• The Favourite
• Green Book
• Roma
• A Star is Born
• Vice

What will Win: Roma

I know a foreign film taking home the Academy Award for Best Picture would be unprecedented but since Alfonso Cuaron won the DGA Award for Best Director that makes him the man to beat for the Best Director Oscar and history is on his side with the Best Picture and Best Director winners coming from the same movie 90% of the time. This decade that has not been the case but his friend and fellow Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro won both Best Director and Best Picture last year, Cuaron seems poised to repeat and win his second Best Director Oscar this decade after previously winning for Gravity (2013) which interestingly enough did not win Best Picture, the top prize went to 12 Years a Slave instead. There are certain factors hurting it, the fact that Roma is black and white, subtitled and a Netflix original film with a very limited theatrical release are all aspects that could deter Academy members from giving it Best Picture so Roma is very far from a sure thing. Plus it has non-actors in its leading roles. Those voters that care about star power as much as the Hollywood Foreign Press who votes for the Golden Globes are likely going to ignore Roma in favor of more typical Hollywood and Oscar movies such as A Star is Born, The Favourite, and Vice. 

What Should Win: Blackkklansman

Blackkklansman and Roma are the only two Best Picture nominees on my top 10 at numbers 3 and 5 respectively. They are the only two great films of the nominees the Academy chose to honor as the best of the year so I would not mind seeing either film win the big one at the end of the night. I only slightly preferred Blackkklansman because of its smart social commentary over Cuaron’s sweeping long takes and masterful cinematography. Both are outstanding pictures that deserve all the recognition that they have received from the Awards circuit so far and I would cheer loudly if they are announced as the Best Picture of 2018. 

What Could Upset: A Star is Born

The front runner early on in the Oscar Race was A Star is Born. But when Bradley Cooper found his name mysteriously off the Academy’s choices for Best Director, the film took a step back. As did it’s momentum when Glenn Close started winning every Best Actress award over Lady Gaga. It still has a chance to win, but not as strong as it was prior to the day the nominations were announced. Not getting your director’s name is not a death knell for a picture even when it is an actor/director (see Ben Affleck in 2012 for Argo) but it does reduce its chances. The same could be said for Green Book which was a big hit with the Golden Globes and it’s director Peter Farrelly was cut from the Oscar shortlist for Best Director. This opened the doorway for The Favourite and Vice to become more viable candidates. They have a chance to win as well. Plus, do not count out Black Panther. The first superhero movie to ever be nominated for Best Picture was also the highest grossing movie of the year. If the Academy wants to honor a genre picture, which they seldom do with Best Picture other than Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King from 2003, then this would be one of their best opportunities with a topical action-packed hit that also championed African-American and feminist qualities to boot. Spike Lee’s Blackkklansman will most likely be relegated to winning a screenplay award even though its prolific director earned his first ever Best Director nomination for that film. He has a chance albeit a small one to make history and become the first African-American to win Best Director after a decades-long career and being very vocal with his criticisms of the Academy over the years. Bohemian Rhapsody is least likely to win here but will probably go home with another big award for Rami Malek. 

Best Director

• Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
• Paweł Pawlikowski, Cold War
• Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
• Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
• Adam McKay, Vice

What Will Win: Alfonso Cuaron Roma

Once again, Cuaron is the safe bet after winning the prestigious DGA Award for Best Director. Historically that is the best indicator for who will win here and history is on his side. 

What Should Win: Spike Lee Blackkklansman

History is not on Spike Lee’s side, but if the Academy wants to make history on Oscar night, this would be their chance to honor Spike Lee as the first black man to win the coveted Best Director Academy Award. 

What Could Upset: Yorgos Lanthimos The Favourite

The Favourite is a more traditional Oscar movie. Even though its sarcastic and darkly comedic tone does not coincide with a typical Oscar bait picture it has all of the sets, costumes, British accents and prestige elements that make The Favourite an Oscar favorite. It leads the way with ten nominations, tied with Roma, so it should not be counted out to win a lot of awards that night. Personally, I see The Favourite going home with more technical awards than anything else but I could be wrong and would not be that surprised to see it win Best Picture and Director. The only nominee that has no shot of winning is Pawel Pawlikowski since his film Cold War was not nominated for Best Picture. 

Best Actor

• Christian Bale, Vice
• Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
• Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate
• Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
• Viggo Mortensen, Green Book

What will Win: Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

Personal opinions aside about Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek is the one to beat for Best Actor. He has received critical acclaim across the board and won awards already for his portrayal of a very famous rock star in a biopic. Malek’s impersonation of arguably the greatest frontman a major music act in history will most likely end with an Oscar in his hand. He is up against some of the biggest names in the business, so Rami Malek winning is not a sure thing since he is the least known actor in the category, but that did not stop Eddie Redmayne a few years ago winning for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014). The Academy loves their biopics and historically that benefits Rami Malek. But it also benefits every other actor in this category except for Bradley Cooper. 

What Should Win: Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate

Honestly, none of these performances are particularly great and I was devastated the Academy did not honor Ethan Hawke for his tremendous performance in First Reformed or Robert Redford for his career-capper The Old Man and the Gun. But of the choices here Willem Dafoe is the best as Vincent Van Gogh during his final days. Even though Dafoe in real life is about twice the age Van Gogh was when he died he captures the loneliness and longing of a tormented and struggling artist better than any of the other names in this category. It is highly unlikely he will win but maybe since he was nominated last year for Best Supporting Actor in The Florida Project and lost the Academy may try to make up something for an actor who now has four Oscar nominations and zero wins. This is the first time he was nominated in back-to-back years. His previous nominations came 14 years apart between Platoon (1986) and Shadow of the Vampire (2000), and 17 years between the latter and last year for The Florida Project. Despite the fact that he is playing a famous person in a biopic, the nomination itself was a big surprise. His chances of winning are slim to none. 

What Could Upset: Christian Bale, Vice

Christian Bale seems to get nominated practically every other year now. This is his fourth Oscar nomination and they have all come this decade. He won his first time out as Best Supporting Actor in The Fighter (2010). But if the Academy wants to make a statement and label Christian Bale as the best actor of the decade they can do it here for his performance as Dick Cheney in Vice. No actor has two Oscars to their name this decade, Bale could be the first and only one to do so if he wins here. Cooper and Mortensen have multiple nominations on their resume and have yet to win an Oscar so they should not be counted out entirely, but it seems that this is Rami Malek’s award to lose, or Christian Bale’s chance to make a statement about his legacy. 

Best Actress

• Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
• Glenn Close, The Wife
• Olivia Colman, The Favourite
• Lady Gaga, A Star is Born
• Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

What will Win: Glenn Close, The Wife

What once seemed like a long shot, Glenn Close is now on the verge of winning her first Academy Award on her seventh nomination for her powerful turn in The Wife. She was nominated five times during the ’80s and went home emptyhanded each time. She earned her sixth for the little-seen drama Albert Knobbs (2011). This is probably going to be her year and she has won just about everything up to this point. Plus this is a movie about a strong female and I doubt the Oscars will want to pass this opportunity by. 

What Should Win: Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Although I would have zero problems with Glenn Close winning for The Wife and would almost be disappointed if she does not take the stage on Oscar night, I did slightly prefer Melissa McCarthy in her dramatic role in Can You Ever Forgive Me? playing such an unsavory character that was still relatable. Getting audiences to care about her in this movie was a much tougher task than what any of the other nominees had to do. 

What Could Upset: Lady Gaga, A Star is Born

For all the hype surrounding Lady Gaga’s motion picture debut, she definitely delivered. Until Glenn Close started winning all of the major awards on the road to the Oscars, Lady Gaga was considered the favorite. Plus during the year when the Academy was playing around with the idea of a Most Popular Film category and shortening the program in an attempt to engage younger viewers, logically once the reviews came out back in October that the newest incarnation of A Star is Born was great and turned out to be a hit with a lot of the praise being lauded to Lady Gaga it appeared this would be the perfect opportunity for the Academy to please a younger demographic. Right now that does not seem to be the case as everything up to this moment points to Glenn Close winning for a typical Oscar-bait film, but she has not won yet and the door is still open for the Academy to appeal to fans of Lady Gaga that are not the typical Oscar audience. Lady Gaga is on her way to being the next Cher, but she might have to wait until her next nomination to be called Academy Award Winner Lady Gaga. Besides Glenn Close should have won in 1987 for Fatal Attraction but she lost to Cher in Moonstruck. Olivia Coleman has a chance to win if The Favourite has a big night, but even if Roma wins a lot of the other Oscars it is nominated for, do not expect Yalitza Aparicio to win Best Actress here. 

Best Supporting Actor

• Mahershala Ali, Green Book
• Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
• Sam Elliott, A Star is Born
• Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Sam Rockwell, Vice

What Will Win: Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Will Mahershala Ali win his second Best Supporting Actor Academy Award in three years? All signs point to yes. He is on the verge of having two Oscars in a very close span, something that rarely happens. He was virtually an unknown two years ago when he won this same award for Moonlight and now has become a Hollywood A-lister and is making the most of it with scene-stealing performances in major motion pictures as well as a dominating lead role on the newest season of HBO’s True Detective. Green Book was an awards darling until it took the same hit as A Star is Born when its director, Peter Farrelly, was left out of the Best Director race. That hurt the film’s chances for Best Picture but seems to have no effect on Mahershala Ali winning everything up to this point so it would be surprising to see anyone else win in this category. 

What Should Win: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

This is a performance that not only stuck with me long after the movie was over but actually grew on me. Such a nuanced performance that showed so much depth and did exactly what a supporting actor should do, support the lead performance and enhance the picture and Richard E. Grant did exactly that in Can You Ever Forgive Me? making Melissa McCarthy’s performance even richer and more memorable. Mahershala Ali is practically the lead in Green Book other than the first 15 mins of the film. Not that it will hurt his chances of winning but it is hardly a supporting role. 

What Could Upset: Sam Elliot, A Star is Born

Mahershala Ali seemed to become an overnight sensation two years ago and is about to win his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar, but it is hard to believe that Sam Elliot, one of the most beloved actors of the past thirty-plus years has never been nominated for an Oscar. If the Academy plans to turn this award into a career achievement award like they might for Glenn Close in The Wife, then Sam Elliot will reap all the benefits and come to the stage to a huge ovation on Oscar night. This is their chance to honor one of the most recognizable faces, voices, and mustaches in movie history. Not saying that it is going to happen, he has not been dominating the awards scene thus far and Richard E. Grant has been just as hard working of a character actor as Sam Elliot has albeit in lesser-known works. Hollywood’s love and admiration for Sam Elliot’s career as well as his performance as Bradley Cooper’s brother in A Star is Born seems to be the only realistic roadblock from keeping Mahershala Ali from winning his second Oscar in three years. Adam Driver has not been in the discussion much at all and Sam Rockwell just won this same award last year for Three Billboards. Neither of those two has a realistic chance to win. 

Best Supporting Actress

• Amy Adams, Vice
• Marina De Tavira, Roma
• Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
• Emma Stone, The Favourite
• Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

What will Win: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

This is a two-way race even more so than Best Supporting Actor. Despite the fact that If Beale Street Could Talk was shut out of Best Picture and Best Director, that has not slowed down Regina King’s momentum from being the front runner for Best Supporting Actress. She hits all the right notes and touches on racism and feminism in a year where Hollywood is acutely aware of both of those issues. This is her first nomination and considering how everything has played out on the awards circuit so far, it would be a shock to see her not win…unless it is to Amy Adams for Vice. 

What Should Win: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Of the nominees, this is the best performance. Heartfelt, strong, powerful, it supports leading actress Kiki Layne who was sadly overlooked for Best Actress. 

What Could Upset: Amy Adams, Vice

Amy Adams is probably used to losing by now. This is her sixth nomination and she has never been the front runner. Racial factors could play into this and work against her, but she has a lot going this time to favor her as a winner. She is playing Lynne Cheney, Dick Cheney’s wife, and the whole real person in a biopic could benefit Adams. Although the person she is playing is a despicable woman to most of liberal Hollywood who is known to be racist that will not help Amy Adams’ cause to take home her first Oscar when her toughest competition is an African-American actress playing a part where she is hurt by the system that Dick Cheney and his family benefited from and helped create and continue to allow it persecute poor minorities. 

Best Original Screenplay

• The Favourite
• First Reformed
• Green Book
• Roma
• Vice

What Will Win: The Favourite

What Should Win: First Reformed

What Could Upset: Green Book

Much like last years Best Original Screenplay category, this is an extremely close race to call. Last year the winner was Jordan Peele with his script for Get Out. If the Academy is going to honor a film dealing with race relations it will most likely be in the Best Adapted Screenplay category with Blackkklansman. But if they honor one here Green Book will emerge victorious despite the fact that there are some controversies surrounding its truthfulness. I would love to see Paul Schrader win an Oscar for his outstanding screenplay for First Reformed but I realize there is a better chance of it snowing in Panama especially once you realize it is the only film here that is not a Best Picture nominee. The Favourite has ten nominations and its writing credentials could outrank the other nominees. Although Vice, Green Book and Roma could win as well. 

Best Adapted Screenplay

• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
• BlacKkKlansman
• Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• A Star is Born

What Will Win: Blackkklansman

What Should Win: Blackkklansman

What Could Upset: If Beale Street Could Talk

This is the year that Spike Lee could finally take home a competitive Academy Award. He could win Best Director and make history but he has a much better chance of taking home a trophy here for Best Adapted Screenplay. Lee along with the other writers of Blackkklansman deserve it. Even though there have been criticisms about the liberties the script takes to tell the story in two hours it is still the front runner. The only screenplay that has a realistic chance of beating it is also a poignant film about race relations in recent US history that reflects our political climate today is Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk. He won this award along with Best Picture in 2016, the Academy may want to share the wealth and honor fresh faces to the winner’s circle. Even though this time a fresh face is a man that lost his previous screenplay nomination for 1989’s Do The Right Thing. 

Best Animated Feature Film

• Incredibles 2
• Isle of Dogs
• Mirai
• Ralph Breaks the Internet
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

What will Win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has emerged as the front runner over the past month with exceptional reviews and very solid box office receipts making the big dollar totals from Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks the Internet seems like a distant memory. Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs is the artsier choice so it will get a decent amount of votes but probably will succumb to one of the big box office smash hits. 

Best Foreign Language Film

• Never Look Away (Germany)
• Shoplifters (Japan)
• Capernaum (Lebanon)
• Roma (Mexico)
• Cold War (Poland)

What Will Win: Roma

Another two-way race between Cold War and Roma. Since Roma leads all nominated films with ten and has been more of a force to be reckoned with on the road to the Oscars, it is the film to beat here and this category seems like its surest thing to win. Cold War could play spoiler as The Lives of Others did to Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar darling Pan’s Labyrinth back in 2006. It is possible but not very probable that Cold War could pull off a shocking upset. But Roma is the film to beat here more than anything else. The other three movies nominated are just fillers. 

Best Documentary Feature

• Free Solo
• Hale County This Morning, This Evening
• Minding the Gap
• Of Fathers and Sons
• RBG

What Will Win: Free Solo

No clear favorite here since the highest grossing and most critically acclaimed documentary of the year Won’t You Be My Neighbor? was shut out. Free Solo is peaking at just the right time and has garnered praise from critics and audiences are taking notice. Minding the Gap was a smaller scale hit and critical favorite and RBG may be the Academy’s chance to honor a strong woman with a superficial fangirl doc, but perhaps the most people pleasing film of the nominees for the masses. 

Best Documentary – Short Subject

• Black Sheep
• End Game
• Lifeboat
• A Night at the Garden
• Period. End of Sentence.

What Will Win: Lifeboat

No idea. Your guess is as good as mine as it usually is in the short subject categories. I picked Lifeboat because the title reminds me of the 1944 Hitchcock film of the same name. Maybe Oscar voters will think the same way I did. Black Sheep makes me think of the 1996 Chris Farley and David Spade movie, that probably is on less Academy voters minds, but maybe Endgame will win because they are excited for the next Avengers film. That rationale of name and title similarities worked out for me a few years ago when there was a short film named Sing, nominated the same year as the animated family film Sing (2016). It is not giving the Academy members a lot of credit, but I was right. 

Best Live Action Short Film

• Detainment
• Fauve
• Marguerite
• Mother
• Skin

What Will Win: Detainment

Once again no idea here and I have not seen any of these. Detainment sounds serious enough, Mother sounds generic and feminist, so does Marguerite. Skin sounds like a sex movie but that may or may not be what the film is about. Sometimes I get lucky with my guesses on these categories, other times I strike out. 

Best Animated Short Film

• Animal Behaviour
• Bao
• Late Afternoon
• One Small Step
• Weekends

What Will Win: Bao

Bao is the only one I have seen and it is an interesting and strange Pixar short. Oddly dark but certainly memorable. I do not know about the other ones and I am not sure if the other Academy members bothered to see them either. 

Best Original Score

• Black Panther
• BlacKkKlansman
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Isle of Dogs
• Mary Poppins Returns

What will Win: Black Panther

Nothing particularly memorable stands out here. I think Black Panther had a distinctive theme for our hero especially when he entered his homeland Wakanda. It is a Best Picture nominee and because of its sociopolitical context in a superhero movie, I do not think Black Panther will go home empty-handed. 

Best Original Song

• ‘All the Stars’ (Black Panther)
• ‘I’ll Fight’ (RBG)
• ‘The Place Where Lost Things Go’ (Mary Poppins Returns)
• ‘Shallow’ from (A Star is Born)
• ‘When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings’ (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs)

What Will Win: A Star is Born

Now, this really is the absolute best chance A Star is Born has at taking home an Oscar on the big night. The musical stole audiences and critics hearts with this powerful love song and if Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga sing a duet together on the stage, A Star is Born will be rewarded for ‘Shallow’. 

Best Sound Editing

• Black Panther
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• First Man
• A Quiet Place
• Roma

What Will Win: First Man

A category that might be completely dropped from the television schedule. I would love to see A Quiet Place take home the Oscar here but realistically I think it may lose to one of the three Best Picture nominees featured in the category or the Oscar voters may instead choose to honor Damien Chazelle’s overlooked Neil Armstrong biopic First Man. The reason I give that movie the edge over the other titles the Academy loves more is because both of Chazelle’s previous films Whiplash and La La Land took home this Oscar. He obviously knows what he is doing with sound and has sound editors that do a great job and the Academy notices this. 

Best Sound Mixing

• Black Panther
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• First Man
• Roma
• A Star is Born

What Will Win: A Star is Born

Once again another category that the Oscar producers are contemplating putting on the cutting block. As a friend of mine once stated, “Never has a person walked out of a movie and said, “Wow that sound editing was amazing, but the sound mixing was only so-so”. He is right to an extent and they used to have just a Best Sound category. But Sound Mixing and Editing are completely different things. Usually, Sound Editing is rewarded to a big action-packed blockbuster film and usually Sound Mixing goes to a musical or more harmonious sounding movie. Going by that logic if that is the case then A Star is Born or Bohemian Rhapsody could win here. But some years the same movie wins both. This category is a crapshoot so take my advice with a grain of salt. 

Best Production Design

• Black Panther
• The Favourite
• First Man
• Mary Poppins Returns
• Roma

What Will Win: The Favourite

I would think logically The Favourite is the favorite to win in this category with its authentic British royal set designs but who knows. Black Panther did take audiences to a whole new world with Wakanda and younger Academy members and minority Academy members may have been so blown away by the production design they feel it should be rewarded. I think The Favourite has the historical edge, but Black Panther is just the right movie to pull off an upset win here. 

Best Cinematography

• Cold War
• The Favourite
• Never Look Away
• Roma
• A Star Is Born

What will Win: Roma

So many exquisitely shot films to choose from here. Once again I think Roma has the edge over Cold War and Alfonso Cuaron should emerge victorious. However, the two black and white foreign films could cancel each other out, paving the way for The Favourite or A Star is Born to take home the gold here. 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Border
• Mary Queen of Scots
• Vice

What will Win: Vice

Mary Queen of Scots has a shot, but with all the nominations Vice has, it seems like the safer bet. The Academy may not want to let that Best Picture nominee go home empty-handed if Adam McKay, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams all lose in their categories. 

Best Costume Design

• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
• Black Panther
• The Favourite
• Mary Poppins Returns
• Mary Queen of Scots

What Will Win: The Favourite

Once again the new age of cinema versus the old. History is on the side of The Favourite, literally and figuratively. Black Panther‘s costumes although often computer enhanced were outstanding and authentic to African culture. It feels like a lot of these technical categories are a black versus white, old versus new showdown. The Academy Awards have yet to show that they are hip and with it even though they desperately want to appeal to younger audiences so for that matter The Favourite is the safest bet to win here as well. 

Best Film Editing

• BlacKkKlansman
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• The Favourite
• Green Book
• Vice

What will Win: Blackkklansman

This prediction here is a shot in the dark. The Favourite could continue to sweep all the technical categories. These nominees are all Best Picture nominees as well and sometimes the winner of Best Editing goes on to win Best Picture. In fact, judging by the nominations this year if it was pre-2009 when the Oscars only had five Best Picture nominees this group of five titles here could easily have been the five that made the final cut for Best Picture. Blackkklansman was expertly edited especially with the way they parallel edited scenes involving Black Power and KKK rallies, along with the climax that was meant to evoke and duplicate the editing from the climax of D.W. Griffith’s landmark film Birth of a Nation (1915). That is most likely why Blackkklansman is here and not Black Panther and that gives Spike Lee’s movie the slight edge to win over the other nominees. 

Best Visual Effects

• Avengers: Infinity War
• Christopher Robin
• First Man
• Ready Player One
• Solo: A Star Wars Story

What will Win: Avengers: Infinity War

No Black Panther nomination here either? Blasphemy. But that clears the way for the second highest grossing movie of 2018 to take home an Oscar for the Marvel wing of the Mouse House. Avengers: Infinity War will most likely win here since the other nominees have more minimalist special effects, but sometimes the Academy likes to honor smaller scale visual effects like they did in 2015 when Ex Machina won in this category over Star Wars: The Force Awakens. 

So there you have it. My take on who will win, who should win and what could upset. Unlike previous years there is no clear front runner or sure thing in the Best Picture or any of the Acting races. A Star is Born and Green Book were heavy favorites until the nominations were announced. That threw a wrench into a lot of Oscar prognosticators plans but could make the show itself more interesting. Could Spike Lee have a big night and see Blackkklansman take home a lot of awards? Could The Favourite translate its big wins in technical categories into big wins for its actors, writers, and producers? Or could Roma dominate the Oscars in a way few films have and set a new landmark for Netflix as a major player in the Academy Awards for years to come? All those questions will be answered on the big night.