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Brandy McDonnell gives her predictions for Sunday's Academy Awards

After weeks of wrongheaded ideas, fruitless searching and thinly veiled affronts, the 91st Academy Awards are Sunday night.

With the fervor of a younger, drunken Dick Cheney trying to straighten up after Lynne threatens to dump him in “Vice,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences feverishly set out to make ABC happy by improving ratings for the venerable show.

I'd like to not thank the Academy for the ridiculous notion of a category for “Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film,” the desperation-scented and eventually empty search for a host and the ill-received and quickly reversed decision to relegate some categories to commercial breaks.

If the Academy can't even plan a three-hour ceremony without numerous high-profile gaffes, it's hard to have confidence in its ability to award the best in film from the past year. It doesn't help that several of the most acclaimed movies of 2018— the taut drama “Leave No Trace,” the Oklahoma-filmed “Wildlife,” the Mr. Rogers documentary “Won't You Be My Neighbor?,” to name a few— got zero Oscar nods.

The best picture category is almost as notable for the movies left out— like “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “First Man” and “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”— as for the eight nominees. The contenders range from the expensive “Behind the Music” episode “Bohemian Rhapsody” and the uneasy “Driving Miss Daisy” deja vu of “Green Book” to the fourth remake of “A Star Is Born” and the revisionist historical drama “The Favourite.”

“Vice” might be a stronger contender if the country's political situation didn't feel worse than its fact-based events, and there's a sinking sensation that the groundbreaking “Black Panther” will never be anything more than a comic-book movie to many Academy voters. Spike Lee finally has a shot to receive a real Oscar, and not just an honorary (consolation) prize, with his terrific true-life “BlacKkKlansman,” while a win for two-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuaron's beautifully intimate “Roma” also would be a victory for Netflix.

With all the uncertainty leading up to Sunday's show, it's perhaps fitting that the 2019 Oscars are considered the most wide-open and unpredictable in years, with the various guilds and critics groups spreading their prizes among multiple titles. Here are my best guesses, based on personal favorites, this award season's results to date and my experience covering the Academy Awards.

And if you don't care about any of the potential winners, it might be worth tuning in just to see if the Academy can put on an actual show after all the drama.

Best Picture

Nominees: “Black Panther,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Favourite,” “Green Book,” “Roma,” “A Star Is Born,” “Vice” Predicted winner: “Roma.” Of note: If it wins, “Roma” would be the first foreignlanguage film to be named best picture.

Best Director

Nominees: Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”; Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”; Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”; Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”; Adam McKay, “Vice” Winner: Cuaron. Best Actor Nominees: Christian Bale, “Vice”; Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”; Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity's Gate”; Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”; Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book” Winner: Malek.

Of note: The Academy loves a good acting transformation, and it's easier for most people to root for Freddie Mercury than Dick Cheney.

Best Actress

Nominees: Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”; Glenn Close, “The Wife”; Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”; Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born”; Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

Winner: Close. Of note: With her seventh nomination, a legendary performer finally gets her due.

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees: Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”; Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman”; Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born”; Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”; Sam Rockwell, “Vice”

Winner: Ali.

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees: Amy Adams, “Vice”; Marina de Tavira, “Roma”; Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”; Emma Stone, “The Favourite”; Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

Winner: King.

Best Animated Feature

Nominees: “Incredibles 2,” “Isle of Dogs,” “Mirai,” “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”

Winner: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominees: “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,”

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen; “BlacKkKlansman,” Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee; “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty; “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins; “A Star Is Born,” Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters Winner: “BlacKkKlansman.”

Best Original Screenplay

Nominees: “The Favourite,” Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara; “First Reformed,” Paul Schrader; “Green Book,” Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly; “Roma,” Alfonso Cuaron; “Vice,” Adam McKay

Winner: “The Favourite.”

Original Song

Nominees: “All the Stars” from “Black Panther” by Kendrick Lamar, SZA; “I'll Fight” from “RBG” by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson; “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns” by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman; “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born” by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice; “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch

Winner: “Shallow.”

ON TV

The 91st Academy Awards will air live at 7 p.m. Sunday on ABC. Follow Brandy McDonnell's coverage starting at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at NewsOK.com.