We're now midway through 2017 (!) so now seems like an appropriate point to reflect on the movies we have already come across. We've hit plenty of highs and unexpected surprises, such as Get Out, saw some hits that met our expectations, such as Logan, were disappointed by some we hoped would be good, such as The Circle, and there were lots that were just as bad as we expected, such as Fifty Shades Darker. Some bloggers would do a "Top 10 of the year so far" list, but I'd prefer to save that for the end of the year. I'll even get it out of the way now: my favorite movie of the year so far was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but the one I thought was the best made was Your Name.

Now, I am going to go through everything that just came out and see which ones already have a shot at getting nominated at the 90th Annual Academy Awards. I know it's still way too early to guess what will gain Oscar glory, as it's not that season just yet, but let's not forget that the Academy has favored movies from the early half of the year plenty of times before, and particularly in the technical categories, there were plenty from these past six months that have a chance of getting nominated or even winning something!

From what I could tell, if anything was nominated early in the year, it was from a director the Academy has already acknowledged more than once (whether it's Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel or Michael Bay for 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi) or something that already gained plenty of public interest (like The Silence of the Lambs or Mad Max: Fury Road). I'm not going to mention anything that hasn't premiered yet, because how are we supposed to know as of now that Alexander Payne's Downsizing won't disappoint? This is only formulated from present-day speculation.

So without further ado, here is everything from the early half of 2017 that has a shot at winning Oscar gold:

Okay everyone, just one more week and it will all end! The final stage will quickly come around in the process of rewarding the greatest artistic ambitions of the year. I already made my traditional list of predictions, so now I give to you my predictions to what the Oscars will decide deserves each of their twenty-four honors. Although I've posted before that research and common reasoning has proven to me that the Academy is not so reliable after all in honoring the proper movies. Although these movies here are still great, there are still blaring holes that prevents their choices from being totally accurate. My posthere explains it further. But still, it's good to know what the Academy prioritizes when it comes to art (in this case, it's money) so that we can know what this industry as a whole is truly like. Therefore, I make my predictions. As a bonus, I will also end this post with my ideal ordering of the nine nominees for Best Picture, based on criteria that I have detailed here.

Well, what's done is done. The nominees for all 24 categories just came out this morning, and hate to say it: no Deadpool. But compared to my list of predictions, I got a total of 88/122 (72%) of my predictions correct; the only categories where I got 100% of my picks correct was (to my surprise) the two actress categories. There were plenty of surprises throughout, including other disappointments. While I personally am not too dismayed to see Deadpool lose it here, here are the nominees, along with my score for predicting each one:

​Let me introduce two movies to you. One is the essential Oscar movie everybody would expect to see sweep up the awards. The other is an Irish animated feature film with a very limited release. Guess which one is the better movie?

Well, this is it! Only one more week until the Academy unveils their nominees! There have certainly been a lot of talk about what will pop up and surprise us at the ceremony (Especially with the subject of Deadpool getting nominated for Best Picture!) There have been several films that I felt deserve lots of awards attention but thus far hasn't gotten any (Eye in the Sky, Swiss Army Man, The Witch, The Neon Demon, etc.), but that is a subject I will cover on a later blog post. So for now, based on my own judgment of good-quality art, and based on what the other major awards shows have favored at this point in the awards season, here are my official picks for the 2017 Academy Award Nominees, in all 24 categories!

The Oscars ceremony is upon us! At this point, the Academy members are now finalizing their votes, and all fans across the nation are stating their final predictions for who will take the gold at the ceremony.

But you all are probably wondering, "where on earth did all these big winners learn their stuff?" Well as it turns out, for your convenience, a study has been conducted by StudySoup about the 10 most common schools where Oscar winners had graduated from.