Late Post on the Oscar Front!

Way back here, I made a blurb on the Oscar movies and fully intended to make sarcastic comments about each of the nominees. Well, I never got around to it and now it's too late! Sorry, no times to capture visuals, so I'm going to make predictions right now and then later I'll comment as the winners come in. Italics for who I want to win and Bold for who the Academy will probably pick. (While juggling the task of marking Final Exams!)

Best Picture
Babel...I dunno. Looks good, haven't seen it...won't win.
Departed...I dunno. Wanna see it (Maybe this week)...might win.
Letters from Iwo Jima...Saw it, loved it, want it to win...it won't.
Little Miss Sunshine...Saw it, liked it, has a marginal chance of winning.
The Queen...I dunno. The Academy likes period pieces with fancy costumes.

Best Foreign Picture
I haven't seen any of them, I want the Canada pic to win on principle but , Bloody Hell, boy, I really want "Pan's Labyrinth" to win. The Academy may agree but I doubt it. The other candidates look ripe for their type of movie. Crap shoot pick...
After the Wedding by Susanne Bier, Denmark
Indigènes by Rachid Bouchareb, Algeria
The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Germany
Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro, Mexico
Water by Deepa Mehta, Canada

Best Documentary Again, I haven't seen any, and know even less about any of them. Hmmm. 2 Iraq flicks, a Diddler movie and a Bible camp movie. I did see a trailer for Gore's pic and wanted to see it, so that'll be my guess. Besides, I'd like to hear his Acceptance speech.
Deliver Us from Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Best Animated Feature Didn't see any. I question the "animated" efforts of CG motion capturing so that eliminates two of them, thus I'll choose Pixar.
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best Lead Actor
I only saw Leo perform and I thought he was brilliant. Will Smith has an outside chance as sentimental favourite, but they'll probably reward Peter O'Toole for his "last good role before he dies and we've never awarded him a Lead Oscar" (tm).
Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond as "Danny Archer"
Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson as "Dan Dunne"
Peter O'Toole - Venus as "Maurice"
Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness as "Chris Gardner"
Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland as "Idi Amin"

Best Lead Actress
Once again, I haven't seen any of these movies, only Prada made it over here. 2 Dames, 2 hotties and Meryl. Hmmm. The winner will be released here after it wins, but that won't help my decision. Using my じゃんけん (janken = Rock, Paper, Scissors) talent, I'll go for the Queen.
Penélope Cruz - Volver as "Raimunda"
Dame Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal as "Barbara Covett"
Dame Helen Mirren - The Queen as Queen Elizabeth II
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada as "Miranda Priestly"
Kate Winslet - Little Children as "Sarah Pierce"

Best Supporting Actor
I liked Arkin, but it wasn't mind-blowing. Likewise with Djimon. But I loved Eddie and I hope the Academy agrees with me.
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine as "Edwin Hoover"
Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children as "Ronald James McGorvey"
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond as "Solomon Vandy" /
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls as "James 'Thunder' Early"
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed as "Sgt. Bryce Dignam"

Best Supporting Actress
I really liked Abigail, but I feel she should have been up for best Actress. 2 women from Babel, may eliminate them but I hope that the Japanese lass wins. But they'll probably give it to our Dreamgirl, Jen. In your face, American Idol!
Adriana Barraza - Babel as "Amelia"
Cate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal as "Sheba Hart"
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine as "Olive Hoover"
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls as "Effie White"
Rinko Kikuchi - Babel as "Chieko"

Original Screenplay
A tough call. It's rare for a Foreign film to be nominated, and here we have two of them. I'm going to cross my fingers for Iwo Jima, only because I've hyped it so much in this blog.
Babel - Guillermo Arriaga
Letters from Iwo Jima - Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis
Little Miss Sunshine - Michael Arndt
Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro
The Queen - Peter Morgan

Adapted Screenplay
I may be in the minority amongst my peers, but I just don't like Borat. (Small doses are ok, not a movie's length worth.) But I really liked Tomorrow's World (Japanese title for Children of Men) so I hope it wins. Because it's a Feel-good, Rah-Rah Football pic, they may choose:
Little Children - Todd Field and Tom Perrotta from the novel by Tom Perrotta
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - Sacha Baron Cohen, Peter Baynham, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips from the TV series Da Ali G Show
Children of Men - Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby from the novel The Children of Men by P. D. James
The Departed - William Monahan from the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs
Notes on a Scandal - Patrick Marber from the novel by Zoë Heller

Achievement in Art Direction...maybe Pan's Labyrinth will win this one.
Achievement in Cinematography...Children of Men was amazing. So bleak and dreary, just the way I want the world to end.
Achievement in Costume Design...I want to pick Marie Antoinette, because they were wonderful. If there were an Oscar for Best Catering, this movie would definitely win it hands down.
Best Documentary Short Subject...I have NO idea, so how about: The Blood of Yingzhou District.
Achievement in Film Editing...only because I haven't picked it for anything...here goes...Babel — Stephen Mirrione, Douglas Crise
Achievement in Makeup Gibson's an idiot, so not Apocalypto. Pan's Labyrinth — David Martí, Montse Ribé is a likely choice, but this one has a Japanese guy, so I'll choose: Click — Kazuhiro Tsuji & Bill Corso
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)...I dunno any of these movies, nor am I familiar with their composers. So tossing a 5-sided coin, I'll go for Notes on a Scandal by Philip Glass.
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)...Though I saw Dreamgirls, none of the tunes left me humming them. And since I've never forgiven Randy Newman for "Short People", I'll pick: "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth sung by Melissa Etheridge.
Best Animated Short Film...The only one is a spinoff from a movie I'm not fond of (Ice Age), but No Time for Nuts by Chris Renaud & Mike Thurmeier was pure genius.
Best Live Action Short Film...Who knows? Using my ever handy 5-sided coin again, we pick: Binta and the Great Idea by Javier Fesser & Luis Manso because I like the word, "Binta".
Achievement in Sound Editing...I actually saw 4/5 of these movies, but Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes, Lee Orloff) was the noisiest, so I'll choose it.
Achievement in Visual Effects...Poseidon undoubtedly sucks (give me Irwin Allen any day of the week); Pirates had two scenes with really big things rolling, so that's no good; but Superman Returns (Mark Stetson, Richard R. Hoover, Neil Corbould, Jon Thum) had Kal El shot in the eye-THE EYE! That's got to be worth an oscar!

And finally for Best Picture
I only saw Clint's and though good, Flags of Our Fathers drops him a few notches in my esteem. Babel, Queen, United...I dunno. So I'm going to go with Scorsese's sequel to Goodfellows...The Departed.
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Babel
Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Clint Eastwood - Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Paul Greengrass - United 93

Now, I've got to mark a few tests and then we'll see how I did with my predictions!