Jacob Elordi in 'Frankenstein' Ken Woroner/Netflix Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on Reddit Post a Comment Share on Whats App Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Print the Article Share on Tumblr A NOTE FROM SCOTT Happy new year! Since our last update, most participants in the awards-industrial complex enjoyed a day or two off for the holiday - but were quickly back on the campaign trail at the Palm Springs International Film Festival's Awards Gala on Jan. 3, and post-screening Q&As scheduled around that; at the Critics Choice Awards ceremony on Jan. 4; and at various other screenings, Q&As and receptions. There's no rest for the weary, or for the Oscar hopeful. Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter posted our Oscar season Actors Roundtable, a conversation that I moderated with Frankenstein's Jacob Elordi, The Life of Chuck's Mark Hamill, The Smashing Machine's Dwayne Johnson, Sinners' Michael B. Jordan, The Secret Agent's Wagner Moura, Jay Kelly's Adam Sandler and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere's Jeremy Allen White - be sure to give it a read or watch! We learned the National Society of Film Critics' picks for the best of 2025 and the nominations for the Make-up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards. And we're about to get hit with a barrage of additional awards-related developments: Wednesday will bring the nominations for the Actor Awards (formerly the SAG Awards), Thursday the nominations for the theatrical feature categories of the Directors Guild Awards, Friday the nominations for the Producers Guild Awards and the AFI Awards luncheon, Sunday the Golden Globe Awards, and then Monday - as in, a week from today - the start of Oscar nominations voting. It's getting to crunch-time, folks - buckle up! PLEASE REMEMBER: Scott's forecasts do not necessarily reflect his personal preferences. His aim is not to advocate for what he thinks the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should do, but rather to project what they will do. He arrives at his projections by screening many films, analyzing their campaigns, speaking with voters and studying relevant history and stats. Best Picture Image Credit: Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection FYI While Avatar: Fire and Ash continues to lead in the race for the "Bank of America Award" (it just passed $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide), the best picture Oscar race certainly seems to be heading in a different direction: namely, One Battle After Another. Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film continued its sweep of the major critics awards, landing the top prize of the National Society of Film Critics and - against a field that included Bugonia, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Jay Kelly, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value, Sinners, Train Dreams and Wicked: For Good - the top Critics Choice Award too. Other films certainly have passionate backers too - indeed, Sinners and Frankenstein won more prizes at the Critics Choice Awards (four each), and just read what Jane Fonda had to say about Hamnet when presenting it with the Vanguard Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival's Awards Gala. But at this point, I think it would take a freak occurrence for One Battle to lose the best picture Oscar. Frontrunners1. One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)2. Sinners (Warner Bros.)3. Hamnet (Focus)4. Marty Supreme (A24)5. Sentimental Value (Neon)6. Frankenstein (Netflix)7. Train Dreams (Netflix)8. The Secret Agent (Neon)9. It Was Just an Accident (Neon)10. Wicked: For Good (Universal) Major Threats11. No Other Choice (Neon)12. Sirāt (Neon)13. Avatar: Fire and Ash (20th Century)14. Bugonia (Focus) Possibilities15. Jay Kelly (Netflix)16. Song Sung Blue (Focus)17. Weapons (Warner Bros.)18. F1 (Apple/Warner Bros.) Long Shots19. Nouvelle Vague (Netflix)20. Nuremberg (Sony Classics)21. A House of Dynamite (Netflix)22. KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix) Best Director Image Credit: Netflix FYI In the highly competitive race for the best director Critics Choice Award, Sinners' Ryan Coogler, Frankenstein's Guillermo del Toro, Marty Supreme's Josh Safdie, Sentimental Value's Joachim Trier and Hamnet's Chloe Zhao were vanquished by One Battle After Another's Paul Thomas Anderson, who is looking likelier than ever to take home his first-ever Oscar after 11 nominations spread between directing, writing and producing. At the Palm Springs gala, Jane Fonda gushed over Zhao and her film en route to presenting the filmmaker and her stars, Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, with the Vanguard Award; and del Toro and his stars shared the Visionary Award. Frontrunners1. Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)2. Ryan Coogler for Sinners (Warner Bros.)3. Chloé Zhao for Hamnet (Focus)4. Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value (Neon)5. Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein (Netflix) - podcast 1 and 2 Major Threats6. Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident (Neon) - podcast7. Josh Safdie for