You got to be a good movie critic to learn who to put your money on. Oscar date is far yet so there maybe time to watch those movies or perhaps just go with whats been talked on celebrity forums and find out of their hints.
Yeah, I think it helps with betting if you watch the nominated movies, but you just have to differentiate what you personally think is the best movie, and which one you would like to win, and sometimes those two are the same thing.
What's also important is to avoid betting on certain Oscar category if odds are too low. For example, in the last year's Oscar thread I said that 1.08 on Chadwick Boseman winning best actor award is a bad bet. And remember what happened? He lost and Anthony Hopkins won the award, and I must say it was a well deserved win as he was my favorite as well.
I wouldn't bet on Chadwick Boseman winning the Oscar not because I don't think that he will win it (on the contrary, seems like he is obviously the the favorite) but because odds given are way too low. With odds ranging from 1.05-1.08 you would have to bet a lot to get any decent return, and I think that risk/reward ratio in this case ain't good at all, therefore making it a bad bet.
If odds were let's say 1.3-1.4, then I would certainly think about taking that bet, but with 1.08? No chance! I generally avoid such a low odds, no matter what I am betting on. Too many times lost while taking sub 1.1 odds not to learn the lesson.
Facebook will be a good source of info as there are good discussions of whos going to win which awards. From what I observe, the best director award also wins the best pictures, best actor and some. You agree?
More often than not (last 2 years) director of movie that wins best Picture Award also wins the one for directing, but that's not the rule. For example, few years ago Green Book won Best Picture award while Peter Farrelly didn't win an Oscar for directing (that went to Cuaron for Roma which was for me the best movie that year).