One thing is certain: A whole lot of Academy members prioritized seeing the Brazilian film I’m Still Here after Fernanda Torres was a surprise acting winner at the most recent Golden Globes. Not only did Torres land an Oscar nomination in a very competitive Best Actress in a Leading Role field, the film she stars in also received a writing nod and, in one of the bigger jolts of the morning, one of the ten Best Picture slots. Whatever complaints might reasonably be registered with this particular awards body, they have just assured that a modest drama made in South America and in Portuguese is now going to be seen by many more U.S. moviegoers than it would have otherwise.

The big story from this year’s Oscar nomination is the mighty haul of Emilia Pérez. Jacques Audiard’s musical claimed thirteen nominations, more than any other film by a comfy margin (The Brutalist and Wicked are the join runners-up with ten nods apiece). To put that number in perspective, it’s the same number than Oppenheimer got last year, and that film was correctly seen as a juggernaut on its way to winning just about any major trophy it was in the running for. In the immediate afterglow of the nominations announcement, it’s difficult to imagine a scenario that doesn’t involve a lot of people involved with the project happily clutching golden statuettes.

Then again, this is an Oscar year that has felt unsettled all through the process thus far, and that’s without taking into account the way the recent wildfires in Los Angeles have understandably scrambled things further. With a couple exceptions — mainly the Best Actor in a Supporting Role category — this is an awards season without solid frontrunners. As someone who commonly grouses about the long march to Academy Awards night through an endless parade of precursor awards ceremony’s pre-anointing the eventual Oscar winners, I’m happy to see unpredictability reintroduce itself to the process. That might change. It is very possible that the honorees will calcify into place after guild awards and a couple other award-giving bodies weigh in. For now, though, it’s fun to think that the Oscar could go to just about anyone who made the cut today.

Other thoughts:

—We have five first-time nominees in the Best Directing category. It’s been a long time since that’s been the case, in part because Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have been circling back into contention frequently in recent years. By my quick and messy research, the last time this category was populated completely by helmers taking their first dance with Oscar was for the film year 1997, when James Cameron won for directing Titanic.

—Similarly, the acting categories have an abundance of fresh faces. I count thirteen first-time acting nominees. Again, I’m performing quick math and relying on memory, so I might be in error. The category for lead actor has the most veterans, with only Sebastian Stan as a newcomer to the Oscar rolls. In that same category resides Adrien Brody, who is the only person among the twenty acting nominees to already have an Oscar in his personal collection.

—Because there aren’t a lot of repeat acting nominees, there aren’t a lot of people reaching new milestones in number of career nominations. Edward Norton is up to four nods, and Ralph Fiennes is up to three.

—Kieran Culkin is going to win in the supporting actor category. The other three acting races are free-for-alls. I do think the strong overall showing for Emilia Pérez means that Zoe Saldana probably prevails among the supporting actresses. Lead actor is mainly a race between Brody and Timothée Chalamet. I suspect the latter will pull ahead, mainly because the Academy has a real weakness for actors playing performers (Oscar-winner Rami Malek, ladies and gentlemen!). I can truly envision scenarios for each of the Best Actress in a Leading Role nominees winning. The smartest money would be on Demi Moore, but I keep think of her in the last shot of the film, and I can’t wrap my head around that being part of an Academy Award–winning performance. Right now, I’d bet on Torres, mostly by process of elimination.

—Whatever the reservations are about Emilia Pérez, it’s pretty thrilling to see Karla Sofía Gascón make history.

—I don’t want to get too deep into so-called snubs, but it does seem worth extending sympathy to Danielle Deadwyler. Two years after she was omitted for her much-lauded work in Till, she is similarly on the outside looking in despite a staggering performance in The Piano Lesson.

—If the Academy isn’t going to give Clarence Maclin a well-deserved acting nomination for Sing Sing, at least he’s among the credited writers for the film earning a place in the screenplay category.

—Change the adage about inevitability to supplement death and taxes with a Diane Warren Oscar nomination. With today’s announcement, the songwriter is up to sixteen career nominations, and this is the eighth year in a row she’s been nominated. As has been the case recently, she’s in there for a song that has no discernible cultural footprint for a film that most people, even the most dedicated movie fans, haven’t heard of. She has an honorary Academy Award but has never won in competition. She won’t this year either.