From Sasha Stone’s post-Oscar nom assessment (“The State of the Race: Oscar Nominations Drop at Last”):

“Best Picture and Best Director are still wide open.

“It should be noted that the stats champ right now is The Irishman. It’s the only one so far that has every requisite nomination we usually look for in a Best Picture winner:

“(1) It came out early (i.e., in late October)
(2) Globes nominations for Director, Picture, Screenplay.
(3) SAG ensemble nomination.
(4) DGA nom for Scorsese.
(5) Eddie nomination plus Oscar nomination for editing
(6) Oscar nominations for acting, directing, and writing.”

I’ve heard what people are saying about The Irishman. I’m not an idiot. I’m a semi-reasonable fellow as far as it goes, and I know that the odds don’t look good for a Best Picture win. I just have this one teeny-weeny little hangup, which is the dead cold fact that The Irishman is easily and obviously the finest film of the year — hands down, made by a master, clean and true, don’t even debate it. The Movie Godz know the truth of it, and many in the journalistic and filmmaking community do also.

I’m sorry but there’s this thing called “reality“, and every so often (not frequently but now and then) it can actually influence how people will vote.