Another year has started, and another Academy Awards ceremony is upon us. 2015 was a year full of amazing films, with intense thrillers like “The Revenant,” “Sicario,” and “Ex Machina,” bombastic blockbusters like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and even a rare, lighthearted adventure in the form of “Inside Out.” With the Academy Awards approaching and the nominations finally announced, it’s time to look at the nominated films for each category and do the popular tradition of speculating what films will likely win which awards.

The likely winner for Best Picture is “The Revenant,” as it has 12 Oscar Nominations in total, is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, who directed last year’s Best Picture winner “Birdman,” and has major critical praise from reviewers and audiences alike. It’s an easy assessment, as “The Revenant” has been generating Oscar buzz since the very first trailer for it was released.

Lightning will probably strike twice for Alejandro González Iñárritu, who is likely to win “Best Director” two years in a row now for his work on “The Revenant.” Iñárritu won Best Director for “Birdman” last year, and the beautiful visuals of “The Revenant” have been one of its most-praised aspect, so it’s almost guaranteed that Iñárritu will win.

The likely winner for Best Actor is Leonardo Dicaprio for his performance in “The Revenant,” but there is potential for Eddie Redmayne, who won Best Actor last year, to be the dark horse winner for “The Danish Girl.” Both have received praise from critics for their performances, and both of their performances have an extra layer of physicality, with Dicaprio realistically portraying physical pain and debilitating injuries and Redmayne playing a transgender woman before, during, and after the gender reassignment process. Leonardo Dicaprio edges out Redmayne, however, as Dicaprio’s performance has generated huge Oscar buzz from news and entertainment outlets, arguably being more talked about than “The Revenant” itself, mostly due to the fact that he has been in many critically-acclaimed movies and blockbusters throughout the years and has not won any Academy Awards despite being nominated multiple times.

The likely winner for Best Supporting Actor is a tie between Mark Ruffalo for his performance in “Spotlight” and Tom Hardy for his performance in “The Revenant.” Both Ruffalo and Hardy disappear into their roles, giving scene-stealing performances that are arguably superior to the performances given by the actors in the main roles of their respective movies. It’s hard to choose who is more likely to win, as Ruffalo has more screentime in “Spotlight” than Hardy has in “The Revenant” and gives a realistic and gripping performance as a journalist trying to uncover the truth behind the Catholic Church Sex Abuse scandal, while Hardy turns a one-dimensional villain into a three-dimensional character through his acting ability alone, turning a character that the audience was supposed to completely hate into someone with understandable, if not sympathetic, motivations and goals.

Brie Larson enraptured critics with her performance in “Room,” and because of this performance she is likely to win Best Actress. While “Room” was not a box office hit, it was a critical darling, having near-universal acclaim and praise, almost all of which focused on Larson’s performance.

Alicia Vikander stole the show with her performance in “The Danish Girl,” and despite being in a supporting role received an equal amount of critical praise as Eddie Redmayne did for his main role. Vikander’s performance is one of the most-praised aspects of “The Danish Girl,” and her work will likely pay off, as she is the most likely nominee to win Best Support Actress.

The likely winner for Best Animated Feature Film is “Inside Out,” as it received widespread critical acclaim, and the word-of-mouth about the film’s quality dominated the first half of 2016. In addition, the Animated Feature Film with the biggest release and box office gross tends to win the award, and “Inside Out” has the highest box office gross out of all the nominees for Best Animated Feature Film.

The likely winner for Best Original Screenplay is “Ex Machina.” This film, which follows a computer programmer as he stays for a week inside the secluded home of a famed inventor who claims to have created an artificial intelligence that is impossible to tell apart from a real human, has received widespread critical acclaim for its superb writing, gripping story, well-written characters, and deep exploration of the theme of humanity and what separates artificial intelligence from a human mind.

“Room,” a film adaption of the novel of the same name, has received a staggering amount of critical praise, and is the likely winner for Best Adapted Screenplay. While the acting in “Room” was the film’s biggest strength in the eyes of critics, a sub-par screenplay can sabotage a performance from even the best actors, so the fact that the screenplay allowed for stellar performances will be the most appealing quality of “Room” for the voters determining who wins the award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The likely winner for Best Cinematography is Emmanuel Lubezki for his work on “The Revenant.” Lubezki has won Best Cinematography two years in a row now for his work on “Gravity” and “Birdman,” so it would actually be a surprise if he didn’t win for his work on “The Revenant.” Lubezki’s cinematography stands out due to his long takes, landscape shots, superb scene transitions, and the perfect merging between his cinematography and long-time collaborator Alejandro González Iñárritu’s directing.

The likely winner for best Makeup and Hairstyling is “The Revenant,” as the makeup work done to create the wounds Leonardo DiCaprio’s character suffers at the film’s beginning are incredibly realistic, and the work done through both makeup and hairstyling to make the actors look like grizzled frontiersmen is impressive.

The likely winner for Best Visual Effects “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” as it has a good amount of practical effects, as a large number of aliens featured throughout the film were created through puppets or makeup whenever possible, and superb CGI used heavily throughout the entire film. There is the potential for “Mad Max: Fury Road” to win Best Visual Effects, however. It had an impressive amount of effort by the production team put towards making great visual effects, such as crashing real cars rather than use CGI, utilizing pyrotechnics to make gigantic explosions, and using a minimal amount of greenscreen as possible whenever it was needed for scenes. While “Mad Max: Fury Road” could win Best Visual Effects, it will be an uphill battle, as hype for Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has dominated pop culture throughout all of 2015 and the beginning of 2016.
“The Revenant” is likely to swoop up many of the Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards. However, there were many other great films released in 2015 that are likely to win Oscars, so it won’t be a complete sweep by “The Revenant.”