Best picture? So far, each has equal billingAhead of Sunday’s Academy Awards, no one film seems to be the favorite for the year’s top honor.

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91ST ACADEMY AWARDS

Sunday, 8 p.m., ABC

By Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr

Associated Press

NEW YORK — On a year where one of the lead Oscar contenders is titled "The Favourite," the 91st Academy Awards lack a clear front runner.

Normally a fairly predictable process with one or two favorites, this year's best picture race has been madden-ingly unclear, almost devious in its contradictions. The guild awards, usually a road map to the Oscars, have spread their honors around like never before. Not one of the top prizes from the leading guilds has lined up with another.

The producers went for "Green Book," the directors chose "Roma," the actors voted for "Black Panther," the editors chose "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Favourite," the cinematographers elected "Cold War," and the writers picked "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" and "Eighth Grade," a movie the academy snubbed entirely.

The inconsistency has befuddled onlookers. Variety called it "uncharted territory." Deadline suggested it is "one of the closest races in academy history."

Oscar balloting concluded last Tuesday night. Here's a rundown of the contenders for each award as chosen by AP film writers Lindsey Bahr and Jake Coyle.

BEST ACTRESS BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

BEST ACTOR

BEST DIRECTOR

BEST PICTURE

Who’s the host? No one.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

The Nominees (left to right): Yalitza

Aparicio, “Roma”; Glenn Close, “The Wife”;

Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”; Lady Gaga,

“A Star Is Born”; Melissa McCarthy, “Can

You Ever Forgive Me?”

BAHR: Will Win: Glenn Close, “The Wife”

Should Win: Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”

n The conventional wisdom is that Glenn Close is overdue for an Oscar. Thankfully, she’s really wonderful in “The Wife,” as the dutifully supportive spouse of a newly minted Nobel-winning writer. A “career Oscar” isn’t a bad sentiment and definitely not a “pity Oscar.”

COYLE: Will Win: Glenn Close, “The Wife”

Should Win: Glenn Close

n There’s not a bad choice in the bunch and many more, too, that didn’t make the cut. There may be room here for an upset from Colman, whose Queen Anne was a delirious heap of emotions. But it feels like this belongs to Close, whose subtle performance in “The Wife” overflows with the kind of intricacy that can go (and, in Close’s case, often has gone) overlooked at the Academy Awards.

Amy Adams, “Vice”; Marina de Tavira,

“Roma”; Regina King, “If Beale Street Could

Talk”; Emma Stone, “The Favourite”; Rachel

Weisz, “The Favourite”

BAHR: Will Win: Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”

Should Win: Regina King

n Sometimes will and should match up, and it definitely does for Regina King’s heart-wrenching turn as Sharon Rivers, protective and supportive mother and almost grandmother who will do whatever it takes to keep her daughter’s family intact. She is the foundation and beating heart of “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

COYLE: Will Win: Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

Should Win: Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”

n Regina King is the favorite and deservedly so, but there’s a sneaky chance for an upset here. King wasn’t nominated by the Screen Actors Guild, whose picks often correlate to the Oscars. That could leave open a window for Rachel Weisz, who won at the British Academy Film Awards.

Christian Bale, “Vice”; Bradley Cooper, “A

Star Is Born”; Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s

Gate”; Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”;

Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”

BAHR: Will Win: Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Should Win: Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”

n That Rami Malek somehow became the consensus choice here still kind of baffles me, especially when there’s Bradley Cooper giving the performance of a lifetime as sad, sweet, awful and tragic Jackson Maine. He felt realer than the sanitized Freddie Mercury of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” that’s for sure.

COYLE: Will Win: Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Should Win: Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”

n In an Oscars full of question marks, Malek’s win seems the most assured. His performance is the kind of showstopper that Oscar voters love. But another biopic, Julian Schnabel’s “At Eternity’s Gate,” featured a far more searching and deeply felt performance in Dafoe’s Vincent Van Gogh.

Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”; Adam Driver,

“BlacKkKlansman”; Sam Elliott, “A Star

Is Born”; Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever

Forgive Me?”; Sam Rockwell, “Vice”

BAHR: Will Win: Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”

Should Win: Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born”

n At this point, Mahershala Ali is the only safe way for “Green Book”-loving academy members to give the film an award, and it won’t be undeserved. Ali brings dignified complexity to the fascinating character of Dr. Don Shirley, but, much like “The Favourite,” it’s really a co-lead anyway.

COYLE: Will Win: Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”

Should Win: Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

n A win for Mahershala Ali, two years after he took home the same Oscar for “Moonlight” (a, uh, different movie from “Green Book”) would be something to applaud. But so would an Oscar for Richard E. Grant, a brilliant character actor who has enjoyed the Oscar spotlight more than anyone.

“Black Panther,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Bohemian

Rhapsody,” “The Favourite,” “Green Book,” “Roma,”

“A Star Is Born,” “Vice”

BAHR: Will Win: “Roma”; Should Win: “A Star Is Born”

n “A Star Is Born” really should win best picture, even though it probably won’t. “Roma” is wonderful, but I fear it’s one of those films that won’t be re-watched or even talked about much 5 or 10 years from now, whereas “A Star Is Born” is not only great, but feels like a classic already. And that’s something special.

COYLE: Will Win: “Roma”; Should Win: “Black Panther”

n The guild wins, which usually point the way, have been all over the map, making this a hard one to call. The momentum is with “Roma” thanks, in part, to an all-out blitz of a campaign from Netflix (which has eyes for an Oscar the way Jackson Maine wants another look at Ally) and because, well, it’s a fairly astonishing movie. But “Black Panther” and the response it provoked epitomized the cultural height of movies, something some doubted was still possible. Wakanda for February 24.

n For the first time in three decades, the Oscars will have no host. Kevin Hart stepped down from the role in December after homophobic tweets caused an outcry, and he was never replaced.

Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”; Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”; Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”; Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”; Adam McKay, “Vice”

BAHR: Will Win: Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”; Should Win: Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman” n Cuaron did an astonishing job writing, directing and shooting “Roma,” which feels like an epic although it’s in fact a very small and contained story. But it is Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” that is the big, cinematic achievement to be celebrated in the directing category. It’s a rollicking, unforgettable indictment of the deplorable foundation of the film industry and the country.

COYLE: Will Win: Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”; Should Win: Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman” n Alfonso Cuaron’s achievement in “Roma” is staggering in the precision of its obsessiveness. But who wouldn’t want to see Spike Lee win? “BlacKkKlansman” is equally as chock-full of Lee’s own passions and perfectly synthesizes the themes that have long propelled the filmmaker. Also, with the Knicks this bad, Lee deserves to catch a break.