ACADEMY AWARDS THIS YEAR'S OSCAR PREDICTIONS.

In the opening paragraph of our Oscar predictions last year, I talked about diversity and inclusivity turning out to be the actual winners of the night, not the talent.

Little may change this year at the 95th Academy Awards; in fact, the momentum of setting things right by inviting young blood artists and filmmakers of diverse ages, colours and genders, to an overwhelmingly white, male, 50-something average-age members that mostly made-up The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' nearly 10,000- strong vote bank, will likely reflect on Oscar night tomorrow.

As things seem at the time of my jotting down my forecast in the final week of Oscar voting, Everything Everywhere All at Once - an indie film with a primarily Asian cast - will trump the once Oscar-favourite All Quiet on the Western Front, a German anti-war movie based on an acclaimed novel set during the Second World War, whose prior adaptation won Best Director and Best Production in 1930, and which is considered one of the best movies ever made by the American Film Institute.

The change in direction The Academy - and the Hollywood industry for that matter - is vying for will likely help its popularity with the audience (the ratings of the television broadcast have been on a downward spiral for years now), but it also robs the night of some deserved winners.

Besides some upsets here and there to keep things interesting, generally we will have a predictable Oscar ceremony celebrating 'moderately good' filmmaking again this year at the 95th Academy Awards

Taking the change into consideration, in my 18th year of predicting the Oscars on these pages, I have decided to not judge the films on my gut feelings alone. Rather, my assumptions will largely reflect the decisions the various guilds and prior award shows have made so far.

This is not my preferred way, but the decision, I feel, is forced upon me by the nominees themselves.

Like last year, few titles and artists truly rise to the pedestal of being worthy of being nominated, let alone win awards. Now don't get me wrong; most of the 39 titles in the 20 categories are fine films (I have watched 36 titles so far), but are they really award-worthy?

I think our predictions for the 95th Oscars are safe bets, given the way Hollywood is tilting.

The results may not outshine Icon's last year's forecasts, when we aced 18 out of 20 categories - a career second-best in terms of predictions (we had a perfect score in 2014, the year Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won her Oscar for Saving Face) - but then again, given that I am merely tracking guild award winners, and then applying the process of elimination for those who have already won Oscars, I may just get them right.

As it happens every year, there are one or two titles with real chances of winning. My forecasts divide the percentages between the top contenders, as per the dramatic changes in the award season - but we'll talk more of this in the categories below.

So, without further ado, here are the predicted winners of 95th Academy Awards, airing early tomorrow morning, Pakistan time.

Best Picture

A few months ago, All Quiet on the Western Front - a good-enough Oscar contender, though far from the best - was pegged as the would-be winner. The film has won the Bafta which, by and large, has been used as a predictor for the Oscars by some pundits - though not us. The outcome, though, seemed to change as the Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Writers Guild (WGA), began awarding Everything Everywhere All at Once - an okay-ish film about relationships and multiversal...