‘Poor Things’ will be a double digit Oscar contender

Yorgos Lanthimos‘ “The Favourite” scored 10 Oscar nominations in 2019, including bids for Best Picture and Best Director for Lanthimos and a Best Actress win for Olivia Colman. Stone and Lanthimos reunite this year for “Poor Things,” which could be set to have an even better year at the Oscars than their previous film did.

“Poor Things,” from Searchlight Pictures, follows Emma Stone as Bella, who is brought back to life by Willem Dafoe‘s doctor. Bella then goes on a journey of self-discovery, aided and hindered alike by the likes of Mark Ruffalo‘s caddish lawyer and Ramy Youssef‘s hopeful suitor. The movie, which releases in US theaters on December 8, has received exquisite reviews and a near-perfect score of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. As a result, we are predicting “Poor Things” to have a rich year at the upcoming Academy Awards. Here’s a full list of the categories we think the picture could be nominated for.

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Best Picture
It’s unclear who exactly would be on the billing for this but Lanthimos will surely be one of the named producers after he previously earned a Best Picture bid for “The Favourite” in 2019 alongside Ed Guiney, Ceci Dempsey, and Lee Magiday. Currently, “Poor Things” is third in our predicted lineup of Best Picture nominees, with only “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” ahead of the film. Our other predicted nominees in this category are “Barbie,” “The Holdovers,” “Maestro,” “Past Lives,” “The Color Purple,” “American Fiction,” and “Anatomy of a Fall.”

Best Director — Yorgos Lanthimos
Lanthimos earned a Best Director nomination for “The Favourite,” losing to Alfonso Cuarón for “Roma.” We are predicting him to land his second bid in this category alongside Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Greta Gerwig (“Barbie”), and Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”). Lanthimos has a good chance, too. He is an auteur with a unique style. These types of filmmakers often get nominated in this category, such as Ruben Östlund (“The Triangle of Sadness”), Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”), and Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”).

Best Actress — Emma Stone
Emma Stone won this category in 2017 for “La La Land” while she also has two Best Supporting Actress bids to her name. The first came in 2015 for “Birdman” and the second came for Lanthimos’ “The Favourite.” We are not only predicting her to be nominated again here, we think she’ll win. Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) are hot on her heels, however, while Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) and Fantasia Barrino (“The Color Purple”) are also predicted to be nominated. Stone shoulders pretty much the whole film on her shoulders in a powerhouse performance, which is a good way to get nominated. Just ask other actresses who have carried their entire movies, such as Cate Blanchett (“Tár”), Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”), and Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”).

Best Supporting Actor — Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe
Ruffalo and Dafoe both have good records in this category. Ruffalo has been nominated three times here: in 2011 for “The Kids Are All Right,” in 2015 for “Foxcatcher,” and in 2016 for “Spotlight.” Dafoe also has three bids to his name in this category: in 1987 for “Platoon,” in 2001 for “Shadow of the Vampire,” and in 2018 for “The Florida Project.” He also landed a Best Actor nomination in 2019 for “At Eternity’s Gate.” Neither actor has ever won an Oscar but we do expect both of them to pick up another nomination here for “Poor Things.” Our other predicted nominees in this category are Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”), Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), and Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”). Both give colorful performances here, which is a good way to secure a bid in this category — just ask the likes of Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Sam Rockwell (“Vice”), and Richard E. Grant (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”). Plus, it’s not unusual for two actors from the same film to both be nominated. In 2021, Daniel Kaluuya won for “Judas and the Black Messiah” against, among others, his co-star, LaKeith Stanfield. In 2022, “The Power of the Dog” players Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee were both nominated. And earlier this year, Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan were nominated for “The Banshees of Inisherin.”

Best Adapted Screenplay — Tony McNamara
Lanthimos was previously nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2017 for “The Lobster,” a nomination he shared with Efthimis Filippou. He’s not on writing duties this time, however. Tony McNamara is the scribe this time around, adapting the 1992 novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray. McNamara was nominated for Best Original Screenplay with Deborah Davis for “The Favourite,” but they surprisingly lost to “Green Book.” McNamara is predicted to earn a nomination for his writing again this year, alongside the likes of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer,” “American Fiction,” and “The Zone of Interest.”

Best Cinematography
Robbie Ryan is on lens duty for this one, teaming up with Lanthimos again after he earned a Best Cinematography bid for “The Favourite.” “Roma” won this category that year. Ryan utilizes those trademark fish eye shots again here and certainly gives the film a unique look. We predict that Ryan will be nominated again this year alongside “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” and “The Zone of Interest.”

Best Film Editing
Cutter Yorgos Mavropsaridis has a similar story to Ryan. He worked with Lanthimos on “The Favourite” and earned an Oscar nomination for his contributions, although “Bohemian Rhapsody” won this category that year. We think that Mavropsaridis will be nominated for Best Film Editing again this year, however, along with the usual suspects “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” as well as “The Holdovers” and “Barbie.”

Best Original Score
Musician Jerskin Fendrix earned his first ever film credit for his work as the composer on “Poor Things.” He produces an eclectic, unusual score here but those types of scores often get nominated, such as “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Joker,” “The Hateful Eight,” and “Gravity.” Fendrix has never been nominated for an Oscar before. Our odds chart for this category isn’t up just yet.

Best Costume Design
Holly Waddington is the costumer on duty this time around after Sandy Powell was nominated in this category for “The Favourite.” Period movies always do well in this category with similar recent nominees including “Mrs. Harries Goes to Paris,” “Elvis,” “Babylon,” “Nightmare Alley,” “West Side Story,” and “Cruella.” Waddington has never been nominated for an Oscar before but we are predicting that she will win this category. Our other predicted nominees in this category are “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Color Purple,” and “Wonka.”

Best Production Design
It’s a similar story here. Period films always do well in Best Production Design, such as recent nominees including “Elvis,” Babylon,” “The Fabelmans,” “West Side Story,” “Nightmare Alley,” and “The Power of the Dog.” The credited production designers here are Shona Heath and James Price while the credited set decorators are Zsuzsa Mihalek and Naomi Rozsa. None of them have ever been nominated for Oscars before but we predict “Poor Things” will be nominated this year alongside “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and “The Color Purple.”

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
It’s unclear who would be on the potential Oscars ballot for this film in this category but we think it will be a big contender here, even if our Oscars odds chart isn’t up yet. Not only do the artists churn out stunning designs for Stone and the supporting characters, but they also use prosthetics to give Dafoe’s scientist a truly unique look. This transformational work always does well in this category. Similar recent nominees include “The Whale,” “Elvis,” “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” and “Bombshell.” Expect “Maestro” to be this film’s biggest contender here.

Best Visual Effects
Again, it’s unclear who would be on the ballot for a potential nomination in this category, nor is our Oscars odds chart up for this one just yet. This is an interesting one, however. It’s certainly not your usual nominee in this category but there is still some great work on display here — from the stunning horizons and backdrops to the spliced-together animals roaming around Dafoe’s scientist’s house. Sometimes, prestige pictures sneak into this category. Just ask “Tenet,” “First Man,” “The Revenant,” “The Martian,” and “Ex Machina.”

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