When it comes to predicting Oscar nominations it is always a crap shoot, but I think it is safe to say that there is music in the air in the Best Picture race with original musical Emilia Pérez, Bob Dylan musical biopic A Complete Unknown and the Broadway musical adaptation Wicked all likely to be

You can count on films like “Emilia Pérez” and big stars like Timothée Chalamet and Ariana Grande, but this year may hold some surprises, too.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY “Anora,” Sean Baker “The Brutalist,” Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold “Hard Truths,” Mike Leigh “A Real Pain,” Jesse Eisenberg “The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat

Another musical, the Spanish-language French Oscar entry “Emilia Pérez” (Netflix), is poised to dominate the delayed Oscar nominations announcement on January 23 with 12 nods, by my estimation, followed by papal thriller “Conclave” (Focus Features) with 10,