We made it halfway through 2016! Horray!

But we still have six more months of movies to go through. Aww…

Now hold on a minute. We know that the vast majority of Oscar-nominated films  come out in the latter half of the year, but great movies aren’t forgotten. Just remember… Silence Of The Lambs came out in January, and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind came out in February. Both movies were remembered when Oscar season rolled around, and with good reason. So let’s take a brief look at what the first half of 2016 had to offer.

First of all, here’s a handful of movies that I haven’t seen. (It’s possible that I’ll see some of these if it looks like they have a serious chance with Oscar.)

10 Cloverfield Lane – Everybody’s praising John Goodman’s performance, but I really don’t think this is something the Academy goes for.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – It might pick up a sound nomination or maybe VFX.
Deadpool – I could see this getting a Makeup nomination and shocking everybody.
Eye In The Sky – Some people think Helen Mirren has a chance to be represented. But if she couldn’t get in last year, I really don’t think she’s gonna get in this year.
Hello, My Name Is Doris – Sally Field is probably getting a Globe nomination, but I don’t see any possibilities beyond that.
Midnight Special – Maybe Score or VFX? The critical reception for this film isn’t the strongest.
Swiss Army Man – Is this a dark horse contender in Original Screenplay? The originality of the film is being praised left and right.
The Witch – It might sneak in somewhere, I’m just not sure where.

Now, onto some of the movies that I have seen.

Like John Carney’s other films, I predict Sing Street will be nominated for Original Song and nothing else.

Alice Through The Looking Glass and Hail, Caesar could both be nominated for Production Design and/or Costume Design, but not much else. Maybe Roger Deakins could sneak on for nomination #14, but at this point, I don’t know how many more times I can stand to see him lose.

Some people think that The Lobster has a chance to be nominated for Original Screenplay. I really hope it doesn’t, because I thought that film was pretty darn pretentious. Maybe a Cinematography nomination would be fine, but I don’t think that’s happening.

Finding Dory is definitely getting an Animated Feature nomination…. or is it? Recently, it seems that if a Pixar movie isn’t good enough to win, it gets snubbed. (Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur). Still, it’s safe to predict it for now. Thomas Newman’s music could get on, but outside of that I don’t see any other possibilities.

I feel quite confident in saying that The Jungle Book is going to win the Oscar for Visual Effects. It’s also likely to pick up nominations in the sound categories and maybe a few other craft categories as well. But I’m pretty sure it’s not going to get nominated in any of the Top 8 categories. (Picture, director, acting, writing.)

And that brings us to the film that, according to RottenTomatoes, is the best reviewed movie of the first six months.

Now, I think that Zootopia can join The Grand Budapest Hotel and Mad Max: Fury Road in the category of “movies you don’t think will be nominated for Best Picture but are remembered by the time Oscar season comes.”

In the history of the Oscars, only three animated films have ever been nominated for Best Picture, and none of them have even come close to winning. Many people would scoff at the idea of a ‘kiddie cartoon’ winning the most prestigious award in Hollywood, but I’m certainly not one of them.

Last year, Drew from FistfulOfFilms did a post about Inside Out, on whether or not it could actually win Best Picture. (which it totally should have.)  And there’s a line from the post that I think also applies to Zootopia: “I’m not saying that it’s going to win Best Picture, but if and when an animated film does win Best Picture, I have a feeling that it’s going to look a lot like this.”

I mean, yeah, Zootopia isn’t quite as good as Inside Out, I think that if enough people feel bad about Inside Out‘s omission last year, they’ll probably get behind Zootopia to make up for it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s too early to even entertain the idea of a win in the top category (Especially considering that the competing films have yet to be seen.) But I think if the people at Disney campaign hard, and if they try everything, a nomination is certainly within reach.

And for all you people who think I’m crazy for having such high hopes for the film, just remember: everybody called me crazy when I correctly predicted Brie Larson would win Best Actress a year before it happened.

So I’m going to close  out this article with a GIF that I’ll probably be using a lot when regarding Zootopia‘s Oscar chances.