Researching when the biggest film in the world loses Best Picture, like Star Wars vs Annie Hall, ET vs Gandhi, Avatar vs The Hurt Locker, I noticed the film it loses to has always won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Meaning the winner aka the smaller film always had the dominate support, despite any David vs Goliath narratives.

And yet Mad Max: Fury Road, the current frontrunner to win Best Director isn't being widely predicted to win any of the other top prizes. That to me demonstrates that 2015 is going to be yet another year of firsts for the academy. Admittedly, that COULD also mean Fury Road will win Best Picture and categories like Editing but I suspect voters will go with something more mainstream.

AHEM

Out.

If anything, the third film will win it. But probably none do.

There is no third film. There's only annual Star Wars films from now until the sun burns out.

The year itself isn't that weak; the crop of traditional Oscar contenders was weak. Movies like The Martian, Mad Max and Inside Out were all great, and certainly deserving of Best Picture, but no one thinks they will win because they don't fit traditional Oscar standards.

Er... you HAVE looked at the threads in this forum recently, have you not?

The year itself isn't that weak; the crop of traditional Oscar contenders was weak. Movies like The Martian, Mad Max and Inside Out were all great, and certainly deserving of Best Picture, but no one thinks they will win because they don't fit traditional Oscar standards.

And yet Mad Max: Fury Road, the current frontrunner to win Best Director