Oscar Predictions

The Academy Awards are this Sunday. I'm not making any bets. Last time I won, the loser refused to pay me. Very sad. Note...these aren't who I think SHOULD win but who I think WILL win.

Note: I changed some of these because some of the movies I recently saw and decided to change my mind based on how I felt the Academy would choose.

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker
Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy
Best Actress: Helen Mirren
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson
Best Animated Feature: Cars (The Academy always loves Pixar.)
Best Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Cinematography: Children of Men (That one long take at the end where the blood splatters the camera may clinch it.
Best Costume Design: Dreamgirls
Best Director: Martin Scorsese
Best Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient Truth
Best Documentary Short: Rehearsing a Life
Best Editing: United 93
Best Foreign Language Film: Pan's Labyrinth (Should be Best Picture)
Best Makeup: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Original Score: The Queen
Best Original Song: Our Town (I sense the Dreamgirls 3 noms will cancel each other out)
Best Animated Short Film: The Little Matchgirl (guess)
Best Live Action Short Film: West Bank Story (guess)
Best Sound Editing: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Best Sound Mixing: Dreamgirls
Best Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Departed
Best Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine

Best Picture: I'm ruling out Letters from Iwo Jima because first it wasn't the best movie spoken in non-English of the year (Pan's Labyrinth!). Also, do you think a movie spoken in Japanese and from a Japanese perspective is going to win The Oscar. And Clint Eastwood has already directed two Best Picture winners. I don't think a third is this year. I'm also ruling out The Queen. I've heard it's a fine film but I would be shocked if it won the prize. Doesn't seem to have a lot of "buzz". So that leaves The Departed, Babel, and Little Miss Sunshine. Little Miss Sunshine could pull a shocker but I sense it will come up short of the final two. I think this is the year that Matrin Scorsese wins an Oscar. But will they give him a Best Director Oscar but still snub his film. It's not impossible. And although I've not seen Babel yet, it seems to be the same type of movie as Crash with multiple actors and actresses, parallel plotlines, etc. And we know how that turned out last year. I'm going to guess (and hope) that The Academy learned their lesson from last year though and will pick The Departed.

I'm going to try to rent Babel before the ceremony though and before Sunday, I will post a mid-year update to my Top Movies of 2006. I've seen a lot of movies that have really turned my year-end list null and void. So expect that soon.