It’s Super Bowl weekend for cinephiles! The 2022 Academy Awards are tonight, putting an end to another unusual awards season. Everything has been so altered by the pandemic that I don’t know if it’ll ever feel the same again. But no matter what, it’s always going to be fun trying to predict the winners, and the more unpredictable they are, the more fun it is.

And this year is definitely one that I doubt anyone has completely figured out. A few curveballs have been thrown into the mix, especially in the Best Picture race. We have the ultimate “head vs. heart” scenario in The Power of the Dog vs. CODA, while the astonishing film Flee defies description to such a degree that it could win Best Doc, Best Animated Feature, and Best International Feature. A couple of the Actor races appear to be settled, but the others considerably less so.

In short, I’m expecting some surprises tonight.

I don’t pretend to be an awards expert. There’s no encyclopedic knowledge coming out of this brain. It’s just me, a guy who loves movies and likes pickin’ winners.

Anyway, check out my final Oscar predictions below. They were recorded yesterday so excuse me if the timing is a bit off.