The Oscars are always full of jaw-dropping surprises; Forrest Gump beats Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction for Best Picture, Jennifer Lawrence falls on her way to the stage after being named Best Actress for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, and of course the notorious letter mix-up that named La La Land the Best Picture winner – the award really went to Moonlight.

This year’s nominees consist of several film-festival favorites and fewer box-office hits, aside from Marvel’s Black Panther which was one of the highest grossing films of the year. However, what transpired in past Oscars exemplifies that box-office number and fan praise may be completely ignored by the Academy, birthing the famed upsets of the Academy Awards.

The movies news writing team here at MXDWN took a poll of who should win in some of the 2019 Oscars’ leading nominee categories. Here’s how the results, compared with who is likely to win, turned out.

BEST PICTURE

Alfonso Cuaron’s film, Roma, was dominant during film festival season and has earned a whopping ten Oscar nominations. Impressively, Roma stands outs as one of the only films to be nominated for both Best Foreign Language Film as well as Best Picture. Cuaron’s movie starring Yalitza Aparicio — who is nominated for Best Actress — intimately follows a middle-class family’s maid in Mexico City and is said to be the award-winning director’s most personal story of his career. 60% of MXDWN writers thought this artful homage to women who raised Cuaron earned the Best Picture award.

The Oscars prediction poll ran at Bing parallels, naming Roma most likely to win Best Picture, ahead of Peter Farrelly’s Green Book and Bradley Cooper’s fan-favorite A Star is Born.

BEST DIRECTOR

Five-time Oscars-nominated director, Spike Lee, made a splash in the pool of Oscar nominees with yet another racial-savvy satire film, Blackkklansman, starring John David Washington. Washington plays an African-American police officer from Colorado Springs who successfully infiltrates the local Ku Klux Klan branch in the ‘70s. The movie, based on real events, brilliantly pairs comedy with chilling insight into America’s harrowing history of racism that warns of its relevance today.

The team at MXDWN voted for the visionary filmmaker, Lee, but Roma director, Alfonso Cuaron, holds the top spot for most likely to win. Bing’s predictions place directors of The Favourite and Cold War, Yorgos Lanthimos and Pawel Pawlikowski, ahead of Lee – paving for a potentially epic upset.

BEST ACTOR

For some, Vice lead Christian Bale seems to have already secured his win for Best Actor at the 2019 Oscars. Bale won Best Actor at the Golden Globes and was favored by the MXDWN team to claim the award.

Bale was nearly unrecognizable in an impressive transformation for his role as the 46^th Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney. Bale gained 40 pounds for the role and told reporters that he felt like a walrus with a bullfrog strapped to his neck. Makeup artists topped off the actor’s look with sculpted facial pieces.

Cheney is known for evolving the “do-nothing job” of serving under the President. He is referred to as one of the most powerful Vice Presidents in history in addition to being one of the most disapproved of.  Bale received immense acclaim for his portrayal of Cheney despite mixed reviews from critics regarding direction and plot progression.

Bale originally led the race for Bing’s Best Actor but has since been passed by Bohemian Rhapsody star, Rami Malek.

BEST ACTRESS

Since October, Lady Gaga continues to leave audience members in awe of her performance as struggling singer/songwriter, Ally, in Bradley Cooper’s film, A Star is Born. In the cautionary tale of the music industry, Gaga soars musically and in her portrayal of Ally that artfully radiates in themes of vulnerability and insecurity, perfectly contrasted by her unyielding vocal strength in original songs like “Shallow”.

The MXDWN writers named Gaga alongside Roma’s Yalitza Aparicio as most deserving of the Best Actress title at the 2019 Oscars. The Bing-generated predictions place both Glenn Close (The Wife) and Olivia Colman (The Favourite) ahead of Gaga and Aparicio.

The 91^st Academy Awards will undoubtedly be a year of unexpected twists and turns but whether they will be in favor of fan-favorites isn’t clear. Tune in this Sunday to see the winners of some of the highest accolades of the film industry.