The Envelope Please.

Last year I had a modicum of success in choosing the Oscar winners. Here are my picks from a year ago. I had seen many more movies from last year's entries than I have for this year. Here are last year's picks & winners.

Thanks to the Writer's strike, we almost didn't have a broadcast and just like last year, I can't find a Japanese station that will show the show. We get to see the Red Carpet celebs before and after, but nada during. I guess I'll have to YouTube it to get John Stewart's best lines.

Without further ado, here are my predictions. Who I think will win will be in bold and who I'd like to win will be in italics. Since 90% have been unseen by my little eyes, it'll be very arbitrary indeed! As far as I know, there are next to NO Japanese entries and very few Canadian ones either.

Performance by an actor in a leading role:
George Clooney in “Michael Clayton”
Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood”
Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (C'mon, it's Depp, dude!)
Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah”
Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises”

Performance by an actress in a leading role:
Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”
Julie Christie in “Away from Her”
Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose”
Laura Linney in “The Savages”
Ellen Page in “Juno” (I'd like to see the underdog get a chance.)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role:
Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson's War”
Hal Holbrook in “Into the Wild” (No particular insight, but I like him.)
Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton”

Performance by an actress in a supporting role:
Cate Blanchett in “I'm Not There”
Ruby Dee in “American Gangster” (The ONLY nomination I've seen, and she was great.)
Saoirse Ronan in “Atonement”
Amy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone”
Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton”

Achievement in directing
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” Julian Schnabel
“Juno” Jason Reitman
“Michael Clayton” Tony Gilroy
“No Country for Old Men” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (I like the Coen-heads!)
“There Will Be Blood” Paul Thomas Anderson

Best animated feature film of the year:
“Persepolis” Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud (It'd be nice to see some intelligent animation win it.)
“Ratatouille” Brad Bird (I loved it, but I want it to win screenplay.)
“Surf's Up” Ash Brannon and Chris Buck (If there is a God, this won't win.)

Achievement in art direction:
“American Gangster” Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
“Atonement” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Golden Compass” Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
“Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (I hope to see this movie tomorrow.) Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
“There Will Be Blood” (I predict a sweep of this movie.) Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Achievement in cinematography:
“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” Roger Deakins
“Atonement” Seamus McGarvey
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” Janusz Kaminski
“No Country for Old Men” Roger Deakins (It has to win something.)
“There Will Be Blood” Robert Elswit

Achievement in costume design
“Across the Universe” Albert Wolsky
“Atonement” Jacqueline Durran (I don't even know what its about!)
“Elizabeth: The Golden Age” Alexandra Byrne
“La Vie en Rose” Marit Allen
“Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” Colleen Atwood

Best documentary feature:
“No End in Sight”Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience” Richard E. Robbins (It looks like the kind of Rah-Rah movie the Academy would vote for.)
“Sicko” Michael Moore and Meghan O'Hara (Only one I've heard of and I really want to hear his speech this time!)
“Taxi to the Dark Side” Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
“War/Dance” Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

Best documentary short subject: (Never heard of ANY of these.)
“Freeheld”Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
“La Corona (The Crown)”Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
“Salim Baba”Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello (Cool name, ergo my pick.)
“Sari's Mother” James Longley

Achievement in film editing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” Christopher Rouse (Saw it, but didn't like the vertigo-inducing shakey-cam.)
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” Juliette Welfling (Sounds good.)
“Into the Wild” Jay Cassidy
“No Country for Old Men” Roderick Jaynes
“There Will Be Blood” Dylan Tichenor

Best foreign language film of the year: (Again, NO insight whatsoever.)
“Beaufort” Israel
“The Counterfeiters” Austria
“Katyń” Poland (I have a few Polish friends, I have no friends from the other countries.)
“Mongol” Kazakhstan
“12” Russia

Achievement in makeup"
“La Vie en Rose” Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald (Why not?)
“Norbit” Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji (Even though, there is a Japanese makeup artist, and I love Rick Baker, I can't believe this was even nominated!)
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” Ve Neill and Martin Samuel (Errr, the makeup in the first two was okay, so maybe this was good too.)

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score):
“Atonement” Dario Marianelli
“The Kite Runner” Alberto Iglesias
“Michael Clayton” James Newton Howard
“Ratatouille” Michael Giacchino
“3:10 to Yuma” Marco Beltrami (I heard one song.)

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Falling Slowly” from “Once” Music and Lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
“Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted” Music - Alan Menken; Lyrics - Stephen Schwartz
“Raise It Up” from “August Rush” Music and lyrics by Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas
“So Close” from “Enchanted” Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
“That's How You Know” from “Enchanted” Music - Alan Menken Lyrics - Stephen Schwartz (I'd like “Enchanted” to win something, but 3 songs from the same movie eliminates them from the running!)

Best animated short film:
“I Met the Walrus” Josh Raskin
“Madame Tutli-Putli” Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (It's Canadian, so it has my backing.)
“Même les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)”Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
“My Love (Moya Lyubov)” Alexander Petrov
“Peter & the Wolf” Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman (I saw a bit of this one and it looks great!)

Best live action short film
“At Night” Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
“Il Supplente (The Substitute)” Andrea Jublin
“Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)” Philippe Pollet-Villard
“Tanghi Argentini” Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
“The Tonto Woman” Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown (I like the title.)

Achievement in sound editing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
“No Country for Old Men” Skip Lievsay
“Ratatouille” Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
“There Will Be Blood” Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood
“Transformers” Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins (It was really loud!)

Achievement in sound mixing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis (It needs to win something!)
“No Country for Old Men” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
“Ratatouille” Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
“3:10 to Yuma” Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
“Transformers” Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

Achievement in visual effects
“The Golden Compass” Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
“Transformers” Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier (Good effects, even if I did fall asleep during the climax...story of my life!)

Adapted screenplay
“Atonement” Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
“Away from Her” Written by Sarah Polley (Hey, she's a Canuck!)
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
“No Country for Old Men” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“There Will Be Blood” Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Original screenplay
“Juno” Written by Diablo Cody (Maybe the Academy will throw the underdog a bone.)
“Lars and the Real Girl” Written by Nancy Oliver
“Michael Clayton” Written by Tony Gilroy
“Ratatouille” Screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird (I'd love to see this win, just to bring some legitimate clout to Animation.)
“The Savages” Written by Tamara Jenkins

Best motion picture of the year: (NO insight, only guesswork.)
“Atonement” Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers
“Juno” Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
“Michael Clayton” Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
“No Country for Old Men” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
“There Will Be Blood” JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

Let's see how well I did, once the show is broadcast...