Oscar Predictions / Who I am rooting for

Seeing as I've seen a good number of the movies nominated this year for the Academy Awards this is the first time I feel qualified to make predictions about who might win some of the awards. Though this is more about who I would give the awards to and not me pretending to understand how the academy votes. I'm just going to do the big categories and those I've seen enough of the nominated movies to have an opinion about. So here it goes:

Best Picture
Atonement



Juno



Michael Clayton



No Country For Old Men



There Will Be Blood


I haven't seen Atonement, but Carley did and said it had great cinematography and music but overall didn't like it because of the story so I'm discounting it (even though it got best drama at the Golden Globes..). Juno was awesome but it doesn't seem like the kind of movie the Academy usually give an award to. So I think it's really down to No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood and think Blood will win out.

On a side note, comedies get no respect at the oscars. I prefer how the golden globes have a categories for best drama and best comedy/music. See this link for more on this topic: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/will-ferrell/videos/18993


Best Director
I really don't know how they pick this category, so after an intense game of eenie-meenie-miny-mo the Oscars goes to.... JULIAN SHNABEL! Wooo! For the movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which I haven't seen.

Actor In a Leading Role

• George Clooney - 'Michael Clayton'
• Daniel Day-Lewis - 'There Will Be Blood'
• Johnny Depp - 'Sweeney Todd'
• Tommy Lee Jones - 'In the Valley of Elah'
• Viggo Mortenson - 'Eastern Promises'

It's really between Daniel Day-Lewis and Johnny Depp for this one. It's close but I'll say Daniel Day-Lewis will win.

Actor In A Supporting Role

• Casey Affleck - 'Assassination of Jesse James'
• Javier Bardem - 'No Country For Old Men'
• Phillip Seymour Hoffman - 'Charlie Wilson's War'
• Hal Holbrook - 'Into the Wild'
• Tom Wilkinson - 'Michael Clayton'

All great performances but the role that really stuck with me was Javier Bardem in No Country.

Actress In A Leading Role
Only saw one movie in this category so I'll be rooting for Ellen Page of Juno, but I expect someone older and more boring to get the win.

Actress In A Supporting Role
Seen 3 of 5 and don't think any of those performances were oscar-worthy so I'll vote for one I haven't seen: Cate Blanchett - 'I'm Not There'

Best Animated Feature Film
Ratatouille - Come on, it's Pixar. While Persepolis was probably more 'culturally significant' and Ratatouille wasn't my favorite Pixar movie by far, I still think it'll win.


I'd also like to see Lars and the Real Girl win for Original Screenplay. Once or Enchanted would both be good for Original Song and Enchanted has 3 different songs nominated so I'm betting it'll win.

Beyond that the awards are specialized in fields I don't pretend to be an expert in or are full of movies I haven't seen so gl to the good movies that deserve those awards.