One of my favorite times of the year has finally arrived - the announcement of this year’s Oscar nominees! Like every year there are a handful of surprises and snubs. This year, however, seems extra surprising, especially when it comes to the Best Picture race.

What’s made this award season interesting is there hasn’t been a clear frontrunner. ‘A Star Is Born’ was the anointed frontrunner ever since it first premiered in August, and it was a critical and financial success. There was much acclaim for Bradley Cooper’s directing and acting, Lady Gaga’s acting and singing, and especially the amazing songs. “This is the one to beat,” many in the industry surely thought.

But then a little-known film called ‘Green Book’ made a big introduction at the Toronto International Film Festival and even won the coveted People’s Choice Award. Ever since it’s premiere at TIFF the film has shaken up the Best Picture race by winning Best Film at the Producer’s Guild Award and Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes.

But wait, there’s more! ‘The Favourite’ and Netflix’s ‘Roma’ have also been in the mix, often nominated (sometimes winning) in the same ceremonies and categories as ‘A Star Is Born’ and ‘Green Book’. My best guess is these four films are at the top of the pack to win the Oscar for Best Picture. However, I can’t even say how positive I am anymore because as the Academy has gotten more diverse over the years, the nominees and winners have been more unpredictable (in a good way). It makes my non-paying job more difficult, but I very much prefer an exciting and unpredictable race rather than the usual Oscar fare where you can see most of the winners from a mile away.

It’s surprising to see films from recent Best Picture winners or perceived frontrunners not make the cut this year, almost shut out entirely. Barry Jenkins infamously won for ‘Moonlight’ two years ago, Damien Chazelle won and then lost with frontrunner ‘La La Land’, and Steve McQueen won for ‘12 Years a Slave’. All three released new films this past year - ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’, ‘First Man’, and ‘Widows’, respectively - and all were considered Best Picture contenders before their releases. Yet they all nearly fizzled at the box office and were, for the most part, left out of many major awards, despite all achieving critical acclaim.

It hurts even more to see none of these films nominated while seeing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ receiving industry support for god-knows-why. The film is the most surprising (and least critically-acclaimed) film to be nominated for Best Picture since ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’. I only had one wish for this year’s Best Picture race, and it was for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to not get nominated. But alas, enough members of The Academy liked the film to get it over the finish line. It definitely won’t win, though… right?

Disregarding ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ crashing the party, there’s a lot to be genuinely excited about this year. ‘Black Panther’ finally did it - it’s the first comic-book/superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture. After ‘The Dark Knight’ failed to make the cut ten years ago, there was so much backlash that The Academy enlarged the nominee pool for Best Picture from five to ten. Since then, no major comic-book movie has been deemed good enough for Best Picture consideration, except maybe ‘Wonder Woman’. There are a lot of haters out there who feel like ‘Black Panther’ doesn’t deserve to be nominated for Best Picture, but I’ll gladly say those people are wrong. It’s one of the best films of the year and probably one of the best superhero films ever, second only to ‘The Dark Knight’. Everything about the film, besides its CGI, was fantastic.

After years of trying, Netflix finally got a Best Picture nomination, and there’s a good chance it can even win! Amazon Studios may have beaten Netflix at the race to get a Best Picture nomination for ‘Manchester by the Sea’ two years ago, but ‘Roma’ is an entirely different film. Despite the fact that it’s a foreign-language, black and white film, ‘Roma’ is one of the films at the top of the pack - maybe even top three - and has won enough major awards to have a real chance at winning Best Picture.

Spike Lee has finally been nominated for Best Director for his work on ‘BlacKkKlansman’; though it’s long overdue it’s still something worth celebrating. I still feel like Alfonso Cuaron will win his second Oscar for Best Director for ‘Roma’, just from what I can tell from the industry support around him in the awards race. If this happens, that would make it the fifth time in six consecutive years that a Mexican filmmaker has won Best Director!

Final thoughts:

• ‘A Star Is Born’ is definitely no longer the frontrunner. Bradley Cooper was surprisingly shut out of Best Director, despite getting a DGA nomination. The film failed to garner a Best Film Editing nomination, too. Usually you can tell that a film has a serious chance at winning Best Picture if it’s nominated for all three of the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing. Surprisingly, none of the perceived frontrunners have all three of these precursors: Peter Farrelly (‘Green Book’) was also surprisingly left out of Best Director, despite also getting a DGA nomination, and ‘Roma’ didn’t get a Best Film Editing nomination. So, following this three-category rule, that would mean the new frontrunners are ‘BlacKkKlansman’, ‘The Favourite’, and ‘Vice’. Of these three, I feel like ‘The Favourite’ is, ahem, the favorite to win Best Picture. I’m sorry.

• How the eff does ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ also get a Best Film Editing nod? C’mon, man.

• Okay, so I actually had two wishes. My second wish was for ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ to be recognized in some capacity. I personally felt like it should have been nominated for Best Picture (definitely before ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’), Best Actress for Constance Wu, Best Supporting Actress for Michelle Yeoh, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design. Is this too much to ask?! Despite being a romantic comedy, a genre The Academy doesn’t usually recognized, the film actually had a decent shot at being recognized this year. It was nominated for Best Film at a lot of other major award ceremonies, and even won the National Board of Review’s award for Best Acting by an Ensemble and Best Comedy at the Critics’ Choice Awards.

• The fact that two foreign-language, black and white films (‘Roma’ and ‘Cold War’) were nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Director is a big surprise. This isn’t a bad thing at all, but it’s truly a surprise.

• John David Washington (‘BlacKkKlansman’) and ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ were not nominated in their respective categories - more surprises! Then there’s Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, both surprisingly nominated for their acting in ‘Roma’. This goes to show there really is major industry support behind ‘Roma’, which may be enough to win Best Picture!

• I knew ‘First Man’ had a low chance of getting a Best Picture nomination, but I still expected it to be nominated and even win for other categories, like cinematography and score. I freaking loved the score.

• ‘The Hate U Give’ and ‘Widows’ should have been nominated for things!

• #OscarsSoWhite may feel like a thing of the past, but don’t get it twisted, it’s still very much relevant. Yes, there are still some people of color nominated in the major categories (Alfonso Cuaron and Spike Lee for Best Director, Yalitza Aparicio for Best Actress, Mahershala Ali for Best Supporting Actor, Marina de Tavira and Regina King for Best Supporting Actress), but the overall nominees are still heavily white and heavily male. Last year’s milestones included the first woman nominated for Best Cinematography (Rachel Morrison, who also worked on, and maybe should have been nominated for, ‘Black Panther’) and the first woman nominated (Greta Gerwig) for Best Director since 2009 when Kathryn Bigelow won.

• ‘Roma’ and ‘The Favourite’ are leading in nominations - two arthouse films, which usually isn’t the case. This year truly is exciting!

You can watch the announcement livestream here. The following are the nominees for the 91st Academy Awards:

My original predictions:

• ‘Black Panther’

• ‘BlacKkKlansman’

• ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

• ‘The Favourite’

• ‘Green Book’

• ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’

• ‘Roma’

• ‘A Star Is Born’

• ‘Vice’

Should have been nominated: ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, ‘Widows’, ‘The Hate U Give’, ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’

My original predictions:

• Bradley Cooper (‘A Star Is Born’)

• Alfonso Cuaron (‘Roma’)

• Peter Farrelly (‘Green Book’)

• Yorgos Lanthimos (‘The Favourite’)

• Spike Lee (‘BlacKkKlansman’)

Should have been nominated: Barry Jenkins (‘If Beale Street Could Talk’), Steve McQueen (‘Widows’)

My original predictions:

• Emily Blunt (‘Mary Poppins Returns’)

• Glenn Close (‘The Wife’)

• Olivia Colman (‘The Favourite’)

• Lady Gaga (‘A Star Is Born’)

• Melissa McCarthy (‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’)

Should have been nominated: Constance Wu (‘Crazy Rich Asians’), Amanda Stenberg (‘The Hate U Give’), Viola Davis (‘Widows’)

My original predictions:

• Christian Bale (‘Vice)

• Bradley Cooper (‘A Star Is Born’)

• Rami Malek (‘Bohemian Rhapsody’)

• Viggo Mortensen (‘Green Book’)

• John David Washington (‘BlacKkKlansman’)

My original predictions:

• Amy Adams (‘Vice’)

• Emily Blunt (‘A Quiet Place’)

• Regina King (‘If Beale Street Could Talk’)

• Emma Stone (‘The Favourite’)

• Rachel Weisz (‘The Favourite’)

Should have been nominated: Michelle Yeoh (‘Crazy Rich Asians’), Cynthia Erivo (‘Bad Times at the El Royale’)

My original predictions:

• Mahershala Ali (‘Green Book’)

• Timothee Chalamet (‘Beautiful Boy’)

• Adam Driver (‘BlackKklansman’)

• Sam Elliott (‘A Star Is Born’)

• Richard E. Grant (‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’)

Should have been nominated: Russell Hornsby (‘The Hate U Give’), Daniel Kaluuya (‘Widows’), Brian Tyree Henry (‘If Beale Street Could Talk’), Michael B. Jordan (‘Black Panther’)

My original predictions:

• ‘Eighth Grade’

• ‘The Favourite’

• ’Green Book’

• ’Roma’

• ’Vice’

Should have been nominated: ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’

My original predictions

• ’BlackKklansman’

• ’Black Panther’

• ’Can You Ever Forgive Me?’

• ’If Beale Street Could Talk’

• ’A Star Is Born’

Should have been nominated: ‘Widows’, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’

My original predictions:

• ‘Incredibles 2’

• ‘Isle of Dogs’

• ‘Mirai’

• ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’

• ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’

My original predictions:

• ‘Free Solo’

• ‘Minding the Gap’

• ‘RGB’

• ‘Three Identical Strangers’

• ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’

My original predictions:

• ’Black Panther’

• ’Crazy Rich Asians’

• ’First Man’

• ’If Beale Street Could Talk’

• ’Isle of Dogs’

Should have been nominated: ‘First Man’, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’

My original predictions:

• “All the Stars” (‘Black Panther’)

• “I’ll Fight” (‘RGB’)

• “The Place Where Lost Things Go” (‘Mary Poppins Returns’)

• “Shallow” (‘A Star Is Born’)

• “Trip a Little Light Fantastic” (‘Mary Poppins Returns’)

My original predictions:

• ’The Favourite’

• ’First Man’

• ’If Beale Street Could Talk’

• ’Roma’

• ’A Star Is Born’

Should have been nominated: ‘First Man’, ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’, ‘Widows’

My original predictions:

• ’BlackKklansman’

• ’First Man’

• ’Green Book’

• ’Roma’

• ’A Star Is Born’