Oscars 2024: Final Predictions and Red Carpet Surprises to Look Out For

The Academy Awards are Sunday, March 10, and Hollywood—and this writer—is all a buzz. It's been a fun awards season with a few surprises here and there, but this Sunday's award show marks the official end to the awards season. So, let's take a moment to go over our final predictions for this year's Oscars and most importantly, what to look out for this year in fashion on the red carpet.

Before we get to that, make sure you're subscribed to the Parting Shot podcast and my newsletter, For the Culture. And make sure you stick with Newsweek as you watch the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, when it airs on ABC at 7pm ET. I'll be posting the best looks and recapping the night for you.

First things first, the fashion! The red carpets this award season have been dominated by color from both men and women, not to mention some truly thrilling looks. Which means that the Oscars red carpet is going to be just as exciting.

The big question is how much an influence will Barbie have on fashion? Even more important, what will Margot Robbie wear? (Something tells me the color pink will be a part of whatever she wears.)

As for the other actors, Emma Stone is one to watch. She often wears Louis Vuitton, and it's fair to assume she'll do the same on Sunday night. Another one to look out for is Carey Mulligan, who has been doing this old Hollywood glamour meets modern fashion style for many of the red carpets this season. Another one that has stunned every red carpet is Da'Vine Joy Randolph. I'm also looking forward to seeing what some of the men will be wearing, because there have been a lot of non-traditional tuxes gracing the red carpets. The men to look out for are Colman Domingo, Ryan Gosling and Robert Downey Jr.

She's just presenting this year, but one actress to look out for is Anne Hathaway. She's the brand ambassador for Versace, and her recent bold looks have been speaking directly to Gen Z. So, if anybody has a wow moment Sunday night, it's going to be Anne Hathaway.

Now let's get into who is going to win the Oscars this year. Spoiler alert: Barbie isn't going to. (Insert anger over the snubbery of it all here.)

Below are my predictions for the major awards, but let's briefly go through some of the minor awards. In the screenplay categories, I think American Fiction will get it for Adapted Screenplay and Anatomy of a Fall will take it for Original Screenplay. In the foreign film category, I think The Zone of Interest will win. For Best Animated Feature, it's likely going to be The Boy and the Heron. And for Best Original Song, it's going to be Billie Eilish's song from Barbie, "What Was I Made For?" In fact, this will probably be the only Oscar Barbie will win Sunday night.

Best Supporting Actor

There are two categories that are locked at this year's Academy Awards, and that's Best Supporting Actor and Actress. With that said, you can expect Robert Downey Jr. to win for his performance in Oppenheimer. While his performance is certainly worthy of an Oscar, let's be real, this win is for Robert Downey Jr.'s career. He's a Hollywood icon who has never won before, and we all know the Academy Awards love to hand out Oscars to their Hollywood faves. The only other person with a chance of beating Downey is Ryan Gosling for Barbie, which would be shocking, and I'd eat my shoe if this happened.

Best Supporting Actress

The other expected winner of the night is Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers. She's won literally every other award and at this point, there's nobody else that's going to stop her. If somebody does catch up to Randolph, it's going to be Danielle Brooks for The Color Purple.

Best Actor

This is an exciting category because it's basically a race between Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer and Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers. Both have picked up a ton of awards this awards season, but because Murphy picked up the Screen Actors Guild award, my money is on him to win the Oscar too. (However, I would not be mad at a Giamatti win, because it is literally the best performance of the year.)

Best Actress

This is another exciting category, because it's essentially a race between Emma Stone for Poor Things and Lily Gladstone for The Killers of the Flower Moon. Like Murphy and Giamatti in the Best Actor category, both Stone and Gladstone have won their fair share of awards this season. While Gladestone won at the SAG awards, which is usually the best indicator of who will win at the Oscars, my gut is telling me Stone is going to win. Why? Because the Oscars love giving more Oscars to big movie stars, and this win would be Stone's second—she won Best Actress in 2016 for La La Land. There's also a world in which, and hear me out on this one, that Stone and Gladstone could cancel each other out, opening up a lane for Sandra Hüller to win for Anatomy of a Fall. (If this happens, I will be very happy. Just saying.)

Best Director

Like the supporting categories, Best Director and Best Picture are locks. So, for Best Director, it's going to go to Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer. The film is tailormade for a Best Director Oscar win, it's technical achievements alone make his win more than deserved.

Best Picture

Which gets us to Best Picture. With ten nominees, there are a lot of options. But out of all of them, only one will win, and that one is Oppenheimer. Barbie may have won at the box office, but Oppenheimer will ultimately take home the gold on Oscar night.