The Envelope Please.

I intended on doing this post earlier and now the darned Golden Globe winners have already been announced. In an effort to do my predictions unbiased, I've tried to ignore them but those darn Internetters won't yell Spoiler Alert! (Ok, I heard that Wolverine won something, Brave won something and Les Miz won something.)
The complete list of the 83rd Annual Academy Award nominations were announced Tuesday and just like last year, I will put my desired win in bold and what I think will win in italics or both if they overlap.
I think every year I see fewer and fewer Oscar movies so this will be as tough as ever. To aid my vast Japanese readership, here is a link in Japanese.

BEST PICTURE
Amour     Never heard of it. Probably something to do with Love.
Argo      I almost saw this but it disappeared quickly. I wouldn't mind this winning something as it shows Canadians as heroes.
Django Unchained     Not released yet. Definitely want to see it. Hope it wins!
Les Misérables     My favourite joke about this: "The name's Miserables, Les Miserables." (Victor Hugo via Ian Fleming.) In theatres now, doing well. Will see it someday.
Life Of Pi     I like movies about math but doesn't this one go on ad infinitum?
Lincoln     I am really shocked that the movie about Lincoln fighting Vampires got so many nominations!
Zero Dark Thirty     Never heard of it. Probably something to do with 00000X6.
Beasts Of The Southern Wild     Never heard of it. Probably something to do with wild beasts of the south.
Silver Linings Playbook     Never heard of it. Probably something to do with clouds & silver linings.

BEST DIRECTOR
I haven't seen any of these and have little desire to see any of them either. None of these strike me as winners, so I'll have to guess!
Life Of Pi - Ang Lee
Lincoln - Steven Spielberg
Amour - Michael Haneke
Silver Linings Playbook - David O. Russell
Beasts Of The Southern Wild - Benh Zeitlin (Long shot or what!)


BEST ACTOR
Yet again, all unseen. It would be nice to see a male lead in a musical win an Oscar. When is the last time that happened?
Denzel Washington - Flight
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
Hugh Jackman - Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix - The Master

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
I like all of these actors so it's a tough call.

Alan Arkin - Argo
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
Robert De Niro - Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln

BEST ACTRESS
Not only do I know nothing about the movies, I know very little about these actresses. I think I'll go with a longshot.

Emmanuelle Riva - Amour
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
Quvenzhané Wallis - Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Naomi Watts - The Impossible

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Since Meryl Streep wasn't nominated for anything, maybe we'll see a new winner this year.

Amy Adams - The Master
Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables Again crossing my fingers for a singing role.

Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Sally Field - Lincoln "They like me, they really really like me again." I'd like to see this as Sally's opening acceptance speech.
Jacky Weaver - Silver Linings Playbook

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Curiously three out of five are stop-action and none are CG. Liked Brave, loved Frankenweenie, will probably enjoy the other three on DVD since they won't come here in English. Slightly irked that "Up on Poppy Hill wasn't even considered.

Brave
Frankenweenie
Paranorman
The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists
Wreck-it-Ralph

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
I'm going to go with the Canuck connection. Winner may go to the Lincoln logs.
Chris Terrio - Argo
Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin - Beasts Of The Southern Wild
David Magee - Life Of Pi
Tony Kushner - Lincoln
David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
I'm going to go all in with QT.

Michael Haneke - Amour
Quentin Tarantino - Django Unchained
Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola - Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal - Zero Dark Thirty
John Gatins - Flight


CINEMATOGRAPHY
I'd like to have a movie that I've actually seen win something, so Skyfall!!

Anna Karenina - Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained - Robert Richardson
Life Of Pi - Claudio Miranda
Lincoln - Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall - Roger Deakins

COSTUME DESIGN
Ever since Edith Head died, I have no idea who'd win in this category.

Anna Karenina - Jacqueline Durran
Les Misérables - Paco Delgado
Lincoln - Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror - Eiko Ishioka She's Japanese so she gets my encouragement by default.

Snow White And The Huntsman - Colleen Atwood

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Huh? No idea. 

5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How To Survive A Plague This might have zombies, so it gets my nod.
The Invisible War A complete guess.
Searching For Sugar Man

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Huh? No idea again.

Inocente It sounds as though it could be French Canadian.
Kings Point
Mondays At Racine
Open Heart
Redemption

BEST FILM EDITING
Argo - William Goldenberg
Life Of Pi - Tim Squyres
Zero Dark Thirty - Dylan Tichenor, William Goldenberg
Lincoln - Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook - Jay Cassidy & Crispin Struthers

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Amour - Austria Wait, isn't this also up for best picture?

Kon-Tiki - Norway
No - Chile
A Royal Affair - Denmark
War Witch - Canada Duh.


BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
Because The Hobbit was in super-duper high-def, some could see (I couldn't) that the makeup was less than pristine. Therefore I'm going to go with the master of suspense.
Hitchcock - Julie Hewett, Martin Samuel, Howard Berger
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater
Les Misérables - Lisa Westcott

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Anna Karenina - Dario Marianelli
Argo - Alexandre Desplat
Life Of Pi - Mychael Danna
Lincoln - John Williams
Skyfall - Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
'Before My Time' from Chasing Ice
'Everybody Needs A Best Friend' from Ted
'Pi's Lullaby' from Life Of Pi
'Skyfall' from Skyfall I actually like this song. Very retro-Bond sound.

'Suddenly' from Les Miserables

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Miserables
Life Of Pi
Lincoln

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head Over Heels
Maggie Simpson In "The Longest Daycare" Oh please, please, please...

Paperman

BEST LIVE FILM SHORT
Asad
Buzkashi Boys It sounds pretentious and the Academy likes that.
Curfew
Death Of A Shadow It sounds cool.
Henry

BEST SOUND EDITING
Argo
Django Unchained
Life Of Pi
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty

BEST SOUND MIXING
Argo
Les Miserables
Life Of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life Of Pi
Marvel Avengers Assemble The only Comic Book nomination, so come on!
Prometheus
Snow White And The Huntsman

It's late so for the last several entries, I did away with a commentary. Good luck everyone!!