Oscars 2018: Predictions and worthy winners from The Shape of Water to Get Out

This Sunday the 90th Academy Awards take place, marking the end of another Hollywood awards season with what is sure to be a night of glitz, glamour, emotion and the organisers repeatedly checking envelopes.

It's been a fairly predictable Oscar season so far with the same four actors winning the respective acting categories at both the Golden Globes and Baftas, in turn making them the clear favourites for success at the Oscars.

The race of Best Director is similarly predictable, leaving only the Best Picture category - which has certainly been unpredictable in recent years - with a chance of offering up a surprise.

Instead of predicting who is going to win on Sunday night, we're instead going to go through each of the major categories and pick the winners we believe should win on the night - even if they don't stand a realistic chance.

Let's start with those acting categories, and more specifically the two being contested by women. Allison Janney is favourite to win the Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya, and despite fantastic turns from Lesley Manville in Phantom Thread and Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird, she would be our pick as well.

Likewise when it comes to Best Actress, we'll go with the likely winner in Frances McDormand, whose towering, career-defining performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri warrants the win.

It's a shame The Shape of Water's Sally Hawkins should miss out, when she would likely win most recent years, but we also want to mention Margot Robbie's performance in I, Tonya and Saoirse Ronan's in Lady Bird. Both were as good or at the very least not far off those of Hawkins and McDormand. This year's is an incredibly strong field.

In the other categories we're going against the grain. Gary Oldman is sure win an overdue Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, but like so many other actors who won the prize after lengthy waits, it would be a win for the wrong film.

Oldman was better in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in much the same way Leonardo DiCaprio was better in Wolf of Wall Street than The Revenant, which he won for. Colin Firth also, should have won for A Single Man rather than The King's Speech.

Our pick for Best Actor is Timothee Chalamet whose extraordinary breakthrough performance in Call Me By Your Name towers over Oldman's brilliant, but cartoonish Winston Churchill and the rest of the nominees.

The Best Supporting Actor category is packed with worthy winners, including Sam Rockwell who is likely to take home the prize. However, our pick is Richard Jenkins, whose affable and vulnerable performance in The Shape of Water was integral to the success of del Toro's fantasy.

Best Director is packed with potential and worthy winners, including Jordan Peele for his powerful debut feature, likely winner Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water and our pick Christopher Nolan, for whom this is surprisingly only his first nomination. Nolan's big budget studio films are unlike anything else out there, and that deserves due recognition.

Finally, there's Best Picture, which is being contested by perhaps the most high-quality field in recent memory. Only The Post and Darkest Hour stick out as not quite belonging in the company of the rest. Three Billboards is favourite to win, but we believe Get Out and Lady Bird have a shot as well. They'd all be worthy winners, as would our pick The Shape of Water - which in our estimation just about edges out Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards.

Below are our picks for the major categories we're able to give a verdict on, including some not mentioned above.

Best picture

Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
*The Shape of Water*
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best actor

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
*Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out*
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J Israel, Esq

Best actress

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
*Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri*
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Meryl Streep, The Post

Best supporting actress

Mary J Blige, Mudbound
*Allison Janney, I, Tonya*
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

Best supporting actor

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
*Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water*
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best director

Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
*Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk*
Jordan Peele, Get Out

Best animated film

The Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
*Coco*
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

Best song

Mighty River, Mudbound
The Mystery of Love, Call Me by Your Name
*Remember Me, Coco*
Stand Up for Something, Marshall
This Is Me, The Greatest Showman

Best adapted screenplay

*Call Me by Your Name*
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly's Game
Mudbound

Best original screenplay

The Big Sick
Get Out
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
*Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri*

Best cinematography

*Blade Runner 2049*
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water

Best costume design

*Beauty and the Beast*
Darkest Hour
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Victoria & Abdul

Best editing

*Baby Driver*
Dunkirk
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best makeup and hair

*Darkest Hour*
Victoria & Abdul
Wonder

Best score

Dunkirk
*Phantom Thread*
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best production design

Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
*The Shape of Water*

Best sound editing

Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
*Dunkirk*
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Best sound mixing

Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
*Dunkirk*
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Best visual effects

Blade Runner 2049
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Kong: Skull Island
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
*War for the Planet of the Apes*