SINGAPORE — It’s that time of the year again, when filmdom’s biggest award show doles out those coveted statuettes on Monday morning (Feb 29). And the world will witness, for the 88th time, who in Tinseltown is bonafide Oscar gold.

At this juncture, we usually know enough about the nominated films to sweep the lot in our Oscars office pool. But with the flurry of the #OscarSoWhite controversy taking center-stage this year, mixed with the typical old-school politicking and critical campaigning all adding noise, it’s a gleefully open playing field for most of the major categories.

No one film completely monopolises the conversation. All of them have proven to be successful in nabbing the requisite awards from important pre-cursors: the Golden Globes, British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and assorted guilds (Screen Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers), which are usually the definitive indicators of Oscars glory.

And so to a nail-biting finish we shall go, because how can you have an upset when there’s no clear frontrunner? Our prediction? It boils down to this simple fact. How does Hollywood want their past year in film to be remembered: Pithy and persuasive exposes on current hot-button issues or visceral old-school big picture film-making?

Here’s a quick cheat sheet of our thoughts on this year’s Best Picture nominees. Perhaps we can’t guarantee an all-out office pool win, but it’ll definitely get you crowned as one of the more informed movie pundits around the water cooler.

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WHAT SHOULD WIN: SPOTLIGHT

This is narrative film-making at its best, simply letting the chips fall where they may and the all-important story tell itself. Never once do director Tom McCarthy and his excellent all-star ensemble — which includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci and Liev Schreiber — ever succumb to manipulative emotion, fabricated sentiment and over-dramatisation when telling the true-life story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe journalists who, 14 years ago, exposed a child abuse cover-up by the city’s Catholic church. This impeccable and graceful execution of an extremely necessary film about a difficult but pertinent hot button subject makes Spotlight a gripping, enthralling and revelatory film.

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WHAT WILL WIN: THE REVENANT

Everyone knows that the Academy loves it when you slog and suffer for your craft. We’re guessing crazy temperatures, unforgiving locations, bear-mauling and liver-eating all easily fall under “suffering for your craft”. Which, naturally, puts director Alejandro González Inarritu, his long-suffering cast and crew, plus the four-time luckless Oscar nominee and leading man Leonardo DiCaprio, in very good stead with the Oscar folk. All that said, the film is beautifully shot and visceral in story-telling. History will also potentially be made if The Revenant takes the big prize as it will make Inarritu the first director to manage a Best Picture twofer. (He directed last year’s winning Birdman.)

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WHAT MIGHT WIN: THE BIG SHORT

Who would have ever thought that the director of Will Ferrell favourites like Anchorman and Talladega Nights would ever be up for a Best Director Oscar, much less have his film as a Best Picture nominee? Not me. But film-maker Adam McKay manages to detail the events preceding the 2008 financial crisis with scabrous wit, break it down for the common man, while getting comically dark performances from his A-list cast of Steve Carrell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt. It’s a comedy that will make you angry. For all the right reasons.

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WHAT WILL MAKE US HAPPY IF IT DOES WIN: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

A director (the inimitable George Miller) with technical superiority and verve. Old-school film-making. Spectacular action sequences. Real stunts. Big vistas. Great stars. Bonafide box-office hit. ‘Nuff said.

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WHAT WE DON’T MIND WINNING BECAUSE OF A PREVIOUS SNUB: THE MARTIAN

It was a travesty when Sir Ridley Scott was ignored in the Best Director category. Especially when his film was, in the same breath, visually stunning, mentally challenging, exciting, crowd-pleasing and charming without ever losing sight of its tale of humanity, and science. And that Matt Damon performance? Wonderful and funny. A movie that truly embodies the phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.

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WHAT’S JUST THERE TO ENJOY THE SWAG BAG:

BRIDGE OF SPIES, BROOKLYN AND ROOM

Steven Spielberg’s spy thriller, John Crowley’s sensitive period drama, and Lenny Abrahamson’s harrowing and heartbreaking drama are all strong in their own right. But let’s be honest, we reckon they are “just really happy to be nominated”.

Catch the Oscars ‘live’ on HBO (Starhub Ch 601) on Feb 29th, 8am (red carpet) and 9.30am (show proper). Catch the encore telecast the same day 7pm (red carpet) and 8pm (show proper). Repeat telecast will air on March 2 (8pm), 4 (10.30pm) and 6 (4pm).