'And the Oscar goes to - oh, seriously? What about...?"

Ahead of Sunday's Academy Awards, Adam White picks his favourites and likely winners, as well as the ones left behind

- Adam White

Unusually, we are days away from an Academy Awards where question marks still remain over a number of its major categories. At this point last year we were all pretty sure that Oppenheimer and Christopher Nolan would dominate on the night – which they did. This year things are very different. And, yes, that is because of Karla Sofía Gascón’s old tweets.

The Emilia Pérez star’s resurfaced social media presence – full of racism, cruelty and, somewhat hilariously, anti-Oscar sentiment – has had an unmistakable ripple effect on the Academy Awards as a whole, with what seemed to be an Emilia Pérez sweep suddenly flying off the table.

Gascón herself – whose literal presence at the ceremony is, at the time of writing, still up in the air – has no chance of winning Best Actress any more, while there’s now a shadow over the film she’s in. Winning Best Picture or Best Director at this point seems unlikely, which opens up a space for other titles that have long been snapping at its heels.

This makes Sunday’s Oscars surprisingly tense, with the madcap stripper tale Anora, the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and the gargantuan The Brutalist all duking it out for the big wins. Recent high-profile Best Actress wins for Anora’s Mikey Madison and The Substance’s Demi Moore (Madison got the Bafta and the Independent Spirit; Moore got the Golden Globe and SAG) have made the pair neck and neck, too.

Ahead of the ceremony, we’ve cast an eye over the major categories and decided who will win, who should win, and who really should have got a look-in. Because justice for Challengers!

Best Picture

Anora

The Brutalist

A Complete Unknown

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

Emilia Pérez

I’m Still Here

Nickel Boys

The Substance