This is Part Five of the Monkey Fighting Robots’ Oscar Predictions for the 89th Academy Awards: Best Documentary, Foreign Language Film, Documentary Short, Live Action Short, and Animated Short. My prediction system uses 25 years of data from awards and critics to try predict who the likely winners will be. Come Sunday, we’ll see how well it works. Make sure to check back after the Oscars to see if you beat the system!
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America
It has won every single predictive award, in a category that rarely agrees on when a film even counts for consideration. This is a shoe-in.
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Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman
The system basically crapped out on this one, since only one of the predictive awards picked any of the current nominees: the National Board of Review went for the The Salesman. More importantly, the director, Asghar Farhadi, is skipping the Oscars in protest of the travel ban issued by President Trump. The Academy may not be able to pass up the chance to hand Farhadi the win.
Best Documentary Short: White Helmets
The next three categories don’t have enough predictive awards to actually run through the system, so these are just coming off the cuff. White Helmets seems the most likely, considering it has had the most exposure and has already been picked up for a full feature adaptation.
Best Live Action Short: Ennemis Interieurs
This is an intimate look at France dealing with its colonial past by zooming in on a French-Algerian man during an interview in a police station. If that doesn’t say Oscar, I don’t know what does.
Best Animated Short: Piper
Pixar hasn’t won this category since 2001, so it has been a long time coming. Piper is gorgeously animated, and follows such a cute little story, it feels impossible to dislike.
Want to see more predictions? Check out Part 1, 2, 3, and 4 of our predictions here!
What are your thoughts on the 89th Academy Awards? Comment below.
