Oscars 2024 picks and predictions. We can guess who will win, but who should win?

The 96th Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on Sunday at 7 p.m. It will be televised on the ABC Network, abc.com, the ABC app and any streaming services that include ABC. Some folks tune in just to see celebrities in their designer attire, but only die-hard movie buffs stay until the final curtain.

As a lifelong movie fan and resident Banner-Herald film columnist since 2010, I spend at least one night a week at the local cinema, and usually wind down each day by watching a movie at home. Though I haven't watched the Oscar ceremony in well over a decade, I'll always have a vested interest in who takes those golden statues home.

Here are my predictions and picks for the 2024 Academy Award winners in all of the major categories. Not every list like this includes Best Animated Film, but I enjoy watching them with my family, and everyone in the Shearer household has strong opinions on their favorites.

Best Supporting Actor Nominees

• Sterling K. Brown for "American Fiction"

• Robert De Niro for "Killers of the Flower Moon"

• Robert Downey Jr. for "Oppenheimer"

• Ryan Gosling for "Barbie"

• Mark Ruffalo for "Poor Things"

WHO WILL WIN: Robert Downey Jr. I fully expect "Oppenheimer" to sweep this year's show, and the Academy has been waiting to give RDJ an award for something that isn't "Iron Man" for a long time.

WHO SHOULD WIN: Sterling K. Brown. Like all of the past winners in this category, Brown steals every scene he's in. I laughed with his character and I cried with his character.

Best Supporting Actress Nominees

• Emily Blunt for "Oppenheimer"

• Danielle Brooks for "The Color Purple"

• America Ferrera for "Barbie"

• Jodie Foster for "Nyad"

• Da'Vine Joy Randolph for "The Holdovers"

WHO WILL WIN: America Ferrera. We all know the monologue that got her this nomination, and we all knew she would be nominated after we watched her character perform it.

WHO SHOULD WIN: America Ferrera. Let's face it, "Barbie" wasn't even nominated for all of the accolades that it deserves, so a win in this category is quite literally the least the Academy can do.

Best Actor Nominees

• Bradley Cooper for "Maestro"

• Colman Domingo for "Rustin"

• Paul Giamatti for "The Holdovers"

• Cillian Murphy for "Oppenheimer"

• Jeffrey Wright for "American Fiction"

WHO WILL WIN: Cillian Murphy. "Oppenheimer" is the type of sprawling epic that the Oscars hope gets made each year, and Murphy made us care for one of history's most vilified figures.

WHO SHOULD WIN: Jeffrey Wright. He's been one of the entertainment industry's most gifted performers for decades, and "American Fiction" is his crowning achievement even if they don't crown him.

Best Actress Nominees

• Annette Bening for "Nyad"

• Lily Gladstone for "Killers of the Flower Moon"

• Sandra Hüller for "Anatomy of a Fall"

• Carey Mulligan for "Maestro"

• Emma Stone for "Poor Things"

WHO WILL WIN: Lily Gladstone. In a year without "Oppenheimer," "Killers of the Flower Moon" would be the movie that sweeps the Oscars. As with Ferrera in "Barbie," this is the least the Academy can do.

WHO SHOULD WIN: Emma Stone. Could she pull off any of the roles in those other movies? Probably. Would any of the other nominees have wanted to play the lead in "Poor Things"? Not likely.

Best Animated Film Nominees

• "The Boy and the Heron"

• "Elemental"

• "Nimona"

• "Robot Dreams"

• "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"

WHAT WILL WIN: "The Boy and the Heron." Studio Ghibli legend Hayao Miyazaki has been nominated many times, but he only won for "Spirited Away" in 2003. He's well overdue.

WHAT SHOULD WIN: "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse." Though the previous entry in this trilogy took home the Oscar, the folks behind these movies completely re-invent the art of animation every time.

Best Director Nominees

• Justine Triet for "Anatomy of a Fall"

• Martin Scorsese for "Killers of the Fower Moon"

• Christopher Nolan for "Oppenheimer"

• Yorgos Lanthimos for "Poor Things"

• Jonathan Glazer for "The Zone of Interest"

WHO WILL WIN: Christopher Nolan. "Oppenheimer" might owe the majority of its box office to last summer's "Barbenheimer" marketing strategy, but Nolan's career is full of receipts.

WHO SHOULD WIN: Justine Triet for "Anatomy of a Fall." This one is purely spite on my part because "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig was conspicuously left out, leaving Triet as my underdog to champion.

Best Picture Nominees

• "American Fiction"

• "Anatomy of a Fall"

• "Barbie"

• "The Holdovers"

• "Killers of the Fower Moon"

• "Maestro"

• "Oppenheimer"

• "Past Lives"

• "Poor Things"

• "The Zone of Interest"

WHAT WILL WIN: "Oppenheimer." It checks all of the boxes for past Best Picture winners; it has a super long running time, it's period piece, it's a war movie, it's by a beloved director, and it made lots of money.

WHAT SHOULD WIN: "American Fiction." This is the type of filmmaking that typified the last true revolution in American cinema in the early 1970s. It's for grown-ups, it's about this moment in culture, but it'll be timeless.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Shearer: Picks and predictions for the 2024 Academy Awards