With a budget of more than $200 million and a box office romp that exceeds $1 billion, Titanic looks to be the big winner at this year’s Academy Awards, which will be televised worldwide Monday.

Because nearly every American with a pulse has seen the big-budget love/disaster flick (about half of which cried through at least three facial tissues), they have a reason to watch this year’s Academy Awards.

Whether it’s seen as a ceremony, competition or just some colossal Hollywood event where Tinseltown gets a chance to pat itself on the back in front of the entire world, the Academy Awards are a big deal. And not only to those lucky or talented enough to be nominated, but to audiences who put down anywhere from $4 to $10 to sit in a dim theater and be taken to another world for roughly 90 minutes or in the case of Titanic more than three hours.

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Though Titanic holds the rope as the cinematic story of 1997, it doesn’t necessarily make it the best all around film of the year. But it should still take home some gold statuettes that any actor, director, editor, or sound effects coordinator dreams to achieve. After all, the only other thing better to receive in Hollywood than an Oscar is a second Oscar.

This category seems like the easiest pick with Titanic rising to the forefront of the ceremonies tying the record 14 nominations of 1950’s All About Eve. Titanic makes a good Best Picture, too. It has a beautiful, un-Hollywood love story played out by equally attractive rising stars and spectacular special effects. The scene when the ship slowly plummets into the frozen water with the two lovers clinging to its rail alone made the movie well-worth seeing. Throw in the mega-box office capital, audience appeal and all the tears generated across the country and Titanic is a shoo-in.

Loved by critics and ignored by audiences, L.A. Confidential looks to be the lone revolutionary that could dethrone Titanic and rightfully so. This gangland flick set in ’50s Los Angeles arguably stands as the best American movie since Pulp Fiction because of its high-energy plot, great acting all around and consummate shoot-out ending. Leading actors Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce collectively brought the most interesting investigation to hit the screen since 1974’s Best Picture nominee Chinatown.

Good Will Hunting fills the storybook slot of the category with young co-stars/co-writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck finally finding a studio to make the film after three years of shopping it around Hollywood. The witty dialogue and potent supporting performances thankfully overshadow the formulated story of a psychiatrist getting inside the head of a troubled but promising genius.

The biggest underdog to win probably stands as the most loved movie of the year. The Full Monty not only made people see the unemployment problems in England, but got them to laugh at it through male stripping. The strippers being real characters and easy to identify with helps the chances of The Full Monty, but the odds might be a little long.

Jack Nicholson teams up with director James L. Brooks again in As Good As It Gets 15 years after Terms of Endearment won them both Oscars. This time around, audiences watched Helen Hunt as a waitress who softens the heart of Nicholson, an obsessive-compulsive romance novelist. The couple is hardly as attractive as Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic, which gives As Good As It Gets a refreshing love story, but may keep it from winning.

Matt Damon may have attracted the attention of Academy voters as the orphan genius as the title character in Good Will Hunting simply because of a convincing turnaround. Peter Fonda could get the nod for his conservative grandfather role in Ulee’s Gold, but he’s basically been MIA in Hollywood for 30 years and may have slipped the minds of too many Academy voters.

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The hilarity of Dustin Hoffman’s dead-on performance of the moving and shaking film producer Stanley Motss in the political satire Wag the Dog helps out his chances, but he’s still a longshot. Nicholson is probably the only real contender for As Good As It Gets. The 11-time nominee has two Oscars under his belt so voters may look to a fresher face like Damon if they don’t give Duvall his second Oscar.

Though easily the award most up for grabs because of equally strong performances all around, look to Kate Winslet to grab the honor for her portrayal as young Rose in Titanic. And why not? She executed the poor rich girl with equal parts pain and joy, and was equally convincing in her love-stricken water scenes, battling to reach the man who has her heart.

Why won’t she win? At 22, Winslet already has two nominations, so voters may feel compelled to honor such favorites as Julie Christie for her aching-mother-longing-for-estranged-daughter performance in Afterglow or Judi Dench as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown.

The explicit sexuality of Helena Bonham Carter’s character Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove may be a little racy for too many Academy voters that are too eager to vote for Winslet.

Helen Hunt may sneak up the stage and grab the Oscar for her homely and honest portrayal of Carol Connelly in As Good As It Gets. Forget the crying scene which was probably stuck in just to gain some attention by Academy voters Hunt succeeds in the scenes with Nicholson because she never skips a beat, keeping pace with his wisecracking and putdowns with fearless retorts.

As Robin Williams gives his Best Supporting Actor acceptance speech for his take as the psychiatrist to Matt Damon’s mathematical genius in Good Will Hunting, Academy voters should rest assured they picked the right guy. Probably the only actor in Hollywood that can be as improvisationally funny as hearteningly somber, Williams’ turns an ordinarily boring role into the best part of the film.

Burt Reynolds poses the main challenge to Williams as the porn producer Jack Horner in Boogie Nights, and Greg Kinnear as the hapless gay artist in As Good As It Gets may nab some votes.

Anthony Hopkins will get overlooked for his take as the bookish, former President John Quincy Adams in Amistad because he seems to be nominated every year. As Max Cherry, the bail bondsman in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Robert Forster has found his best role since Haskell Wexlar’s Medium Cool in 1968. But years of B movies might keep Forster from stealing away Williams’ first Oscar.

The biggest Oscar dis comes in this category. Debbi Morgan’s brilliant take as Aunt Mozelle in (the nearly equally forgotten) Eve’s Bayou was the year’s most stunning supporting performance male or female and was shamefully overlooked and underrated.

With that aside, Joan Cusack should take the Oscar for her lively and comical left-at-the-alter bride Emily Montgomery in In & Out. Cusack’s expression when a famous actor announces to the world her fiance’s homosexuality added to when she asks her fiance after he comes out of the closet at their wedding Was there, oh, any other time you might have told me this? are priceless.

Julianne Moore should be the big contender as porn princess Amber Waves in Boogie Nights, but Gloria Stuart as old Rose in Titanic will likely ride the wave to an Oscar.

Kim Basinger as the Veronica Lake look-alike Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential made a tremendous comeback with her Golden Globe win for the same role. Academy voters may feel no further need to praise her. And as Harvard student Skylar in Good Will Hunting, Minnie Driver continues her freestyle and personal approach to her characters. She finally gains recognition for how well she does it but will be overlooked in a tough class of nominees.

James Cameron’s attention to detail, handling of a major project and final product pretty much guarantees him the Best Director award. Though Cameron (Aliens and Terminator 2) aggravated his crew to the point of near revolution and the release date was pushed back six months, the overall beauty of Titanic mixed with tough shots and brilliant special effects makes him a credible choice.

The way Curtis Hanson (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) weaves the pieces of the L.A. Confidential puzzle together, and Atom Egoyan (Exotica) capturing the desolation and gloom of a small town after a school bus full of children sinks to the bottom of an icy lake in The Sweet Hereafter may attract some Academy voters.

Gus Van Sant’s independent film resume (To Die For and Drugstore Cowboy) impresses as much as his treatment of Good Will Hunting, and Peter Cattaneo’s The Full Monty warms every audience it touches, but neither film has the capacity to sink Titanic the way Cameron did.