What Will Win at a Nailbiter Oscars? AP's Film Writers Make Their Predictions

Best International Film

Nominees: "I'm Still Here," Brazil; "The Girl with the Needle," Denmark; "Emilia Pérez," France; "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," Germany; "Flow," Latvia

BAHR: The International category is especially difficult to predict this year. "Emilia Pérez's" best picture campaign may have flatlined, but it still won the BAFTA in the same category where it was up against two of the same contenders ( "I'm Still Here" and "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" ). "I'm Still Here" is its toughest competition, though it's hard to count "Flow" out either. In the end, I think it may still swing "Emilia Pérez."

COYLE: What was once a cakewalk for "Emilia Pérez" has turned into a genuine nailbiter. I think "I'm Still Here" wins it, thanks not just to the collapse of "Emilia Pérez" but the ascendance of Walter Salles' timely tale of political courage. It's a worthy winner, though I would love to see exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof cheered for "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," the year's most courageous cinematic accomplishment.

Best Animated Film

Nominees: "Flow"; "Inside Out 2"; "Memoir of a Snail"; "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl"; "The Wild Robot"

COYLE: As much as I'd like to pick "Flow," the gorgeous ecological parable about a cat in a watered world, "The Wild Robot" is going to win. Stiff as the competition is, Chris Sanders' movie swept the Annie Awards and is the consensus favorite. And since I, seemingly alone, found it too cloyingly manipulative to be genuinely moving, it also convinced me that I have no heart. So a double win for "The Wild Robot."

BAHR: I'll pick "Flow!" In the grand tradition of the film significant enough to be nominated in two major categories, this seems like the place it'll win unless Feathers McGraw has anything to say about it.