💬 Robert Downey Jr. Will Have an Irritatingly Charming Speech, and Other Oscar Predictions

Let's talk about this Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony

Nicole Kidman and Catherine Zeta-Jones pose with their awards during the 75th Annual Academy Awards on March 23, 2003. (Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)

The Academy Awards are like all the best parts of my birthday and Christmas: a special day that only comes once a year, everyone is celebrating, a day where I will randomly cry (birthday), throw a tantrum (days leading up to my birthday), or both (Christmas). 

I am snug as a bug in a rug with Oppenheimer's near-certain chance of winning Best Picture, and also best actor, and it really deserves makeup and hairstyling too.¹ May December deserved more; Anatomy of a Fall is owed much less. The race I’m most uncertain about is … production design! Barbieland was elastic and ecstatic, but Poor Things conjured a funhouse of freaky fantasies. I know Robert Downey Jr. will have an irritatingly charming speech. The man gives good bemused appreciation. I can’t wait to hear Da'Vine Joy Randolph’s — The Holdovers was fine, but I rewatched a few e…