It’s as if you’re competing in the New York Marathon … and only 20 other runners show up.

Well, maybe not that extreme, but the competition for the Academy Awards isn’t quite as fierce simply because fewer flicks hit theaters this year. With the pandemic in mind, movie studios have been holding back on some of their higher-profile, bigger-name, star-packed releases until more film fans are able to flock again to the multiplexes. So, yes, the field of pictures vying for an Academy Award is consequently a bit smaller than normal.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of extraordinary work from this group of nominees.

In fact, this collection of feature films is wildly impressive and relevant to what’s going on in the world right now.

The victors will be announced at the ceremony airing at 8 tonight on ABC, but let’s take a look ahead of time. 

Best picture

“The Father”; “Judas and the Black Messiah”; “Mank”; “Minari”; “Nomadland”; “Promising Young Woman”; “Sound of Metal”; “The Trial of the Chicago 7”

This is a pretty great group of movies, pandemic or not. “Nomadland” has the momentum going into this, racking up more than a few awards, and it seems poised to land this one, too.

Best actor in a leading role

Riz Ahmed, “Sound of Metal”; Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”; Gary Oldman, “Mank”; Steven Yeun, “Minari”

This award is Boseman’s. He’ll get it in part for his turn as an impulsive, ambitious musician in the film adaptation of this August Wilson play, but he’ll also get it as an acknowledgement of the fact that he died at the tragically young age of 43 because of colon cancer. It’s a way to honor his rich, if too-short career.

Best actress in a leading role

Viola Davis, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”; Andra Day, “The United States vs Billie Holiday”; Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces of a Woman”; Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”; Carey Mulligan, “Promising Young Woman”

This could go any which way. Davis? McDormand? Mulligan? All exceptional, all worthy. Davis morphed into Ma Rainey. McDormand went subtle and inward as someone living an itinerant existence. Mulligan was a tortured soul but also an artful con who was compelled to exact revenge for a past wrong. Here’s my guess: Davis.

Best actor in a supporting role

Sacha Baron Cohen, “The Trial of the Chicago 7”; Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas and the Black Messiah”; Leslie Odom, Jr, “One Night in Miami”; Paul Raci, “Sound of Metal”; Lakeith Stanfield, “Judas and the Black Messiah”

This is a two-man race. My money is on Kaluuya for his powerful turn as Black Panther leader Fred Hampton. But Sacha Baron Cohen could be a spoiler, because of his twofer: playing Abbie Hoffman in “Chicago 7” and then risking life and limb in “Borat Subsquent Moviefilm.” Such different characters, such different movies, such different performances.

Best actress in a supporting role

Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; Glenn Close, “Hillbilly Elegy”; Olivia Colman, “The Father”; Amanda Seyfried, “Mank”; Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari”

Yuh-Jung Youn, get your acceptance speech ready. Since she called the Brits “very snobbish people” when accepting her BAFTA award from them, I can’t wait to see how she characterizes us Americans. I hope she knows we expect her speech to be as sassy and funny and smart and wise as her grandmother character in “Minari.”

Best adapted screenplay

“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”; “The Father”; “Nomadland”; “One Night in Miami”; “The White Tiger”

“Nomadland” again; this is “Nomadland’s” year.

Best original screenplay

“Judas and the Black Messiah”; “Minari”; “Promising Young Woman”; “Sound of Metal”; “The Trial of the Chicago 7”

Aaron Sorkin will probably win for “Chicago 7” because, well, he’s Aaron Sorkin, an acknowledged genius wordsmith.

Best director

Thomas Vinterberg, “Another Round”; Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman”; David Fincher, “Mank”; Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari”; Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland”

I know she won’t win, but I’d vote for Fennell for the balancing-on-a-knife’s-edge dark-humor drama of “Promising Young Woman.” Making that work was a tough feat. But here is what will happen: Zhao will get to say her “thank yous” for “Nomadland.”