Debuting the 2021 Awards Daily Oscar Squad Rankings!

Well, we waited long enough…

Traditionally, Awards Daily’s Oscar Squad – the rankings of Oscar contenders and eventual nominees by the Awards Daily staff – debuts in October. That’s right after the fall festival circuit but just before the traditional onslaught of critics awards. I don’t need to remind you that this past year has been different in literally every way.

So, better late than never, here are your first 2021 Awards Daily Oscar Squad power rankings for the 2021 Oscar season. As usual, we survey the Awards Daily team for their contenders in the following categories: Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, and Cinematography. In every category except Picture, we rank our predictions from 1 to 5. We rank Best Picture from 1 to 10, although in the preferential ballot, of course, we’ve not seen 10 nominees.

We’ll probably not issue another Oscar Squad until after the Golden Globes on February 28. We’ll be watching for the winners, speeches, and controversial or heartwarming moments that may change the direction of the Oscar race. As Sasha reminds us, the Globes are likely to be more influential than ever because they’re announcing just before the voting period. The major guilds won’t announce until the tail end of the week long voting period.