Best Actor - Peter O' Toole (but totally cool with Forest winning, because he was amazing!)

Best Actress - Helen Mirren

Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounsou

Best Supporting Actress - Rinko Kicuchi

Best Original Screenplay - Babel

Best Adapted Screenplay - The Departed

Best Director - Martin Scorcese

(this is more who I want to win...we'll discuss who I think will win later...)

oh yeah, tiebreakers

Best Cinematography - Children of Men (no question!)

Best Art Direction - The Prestige (could be Pan's I still have to see it).

Best Costume Design - Dreamgirls

Best Editing - Stephen Mirrone (Babel), would be nice if Thelma Schoonmaker won another one (The Departed) because she is a really cool lady. Stephen won already for Traffic and he edited Babel in the same fashion and did incredible work).

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

I gave Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay to The Departed, but that cynicism I was talking about went for Clint over Marty for Best Director (though I won't be surprised in the least if they give it to the latter). I've forecasted the big techincal nods (Cinematography, Art Direction, Makeup) for Pan, not to mention Best Foreign Film.

As far as the acting categories, I think Forrest is a shoe-in, even with a living legend like O'Toole in the category. Helen Mirren, I think most of us can agree, is no contest. Predict Alan Arkin has a good chance of nabbing Supporting Actor, even though I understand he's not really in the movie for that long. Finally, the Hype(TM) tells me to expect Jennifer Hudson for Supporting Actress.

Again, I haven't seen any of these, so I'm not judging by merit. 

Logic Hat Online- logichat.org

For those of you who are having Oscar parties, here's the official printable ballot link .

I think I've committed myself to these choices. I have most of my ballot filled out though a couple of the minor categories I'm iffy on. Here's what I have so far though I may try to watch the shorts online if possible. That may change but if not, this is my ballot:

ACTOR Forest Whitaker

SUPPORTING ACTOR Eddie Murphy

ACTRESS Helen Mirren

SUPPORTING ACTRESS Jennifer Hudson

ANIMATED FEATURE Cars

ART DIRECTION Pan's Labyrinth

CINEMATOGRAPHY Children of Men

COSTUMES Marie Antoinette

DIRECTOR Martin Scorsese

DOCU FEATURE An Inconvenient Truth

DOCU SHORT Two Hands

EDITING Babel

FOREIGN LANGUAGE Pan's Labyrinth

MAKEUP Pan's Labyrinth

ORIGINAL SCORE The Queen

ORIGINAL SONG Listen (Dreamgirls)

PICTURE The Departed

SHORT ANIMATED The Little Matchgirl

SHORT LIVE ACTION Binta and the Great Idea

SOUND EDITING Pirates of the Caribbean

SOUND MIXING Dreamgirls

VISUAL EFFECTS Pirates of the Caribbean

SCREENPLAY - ADAPTED The Departed

SCREENPLAY - ORIGINAL Little Miss Sunshine

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

PREDICTIONS

ACTOR Forest Whitaker

SUPPORTING ACTOR  Alan Arkin

ACTRESS Helen Mirren

SUPPORTING ACTRESS Jennifer Hudson

ANIMATED FEATURE Happy Feet

ART DIRECTION Pan's Labyrinth

CINEMATOGRAPHY The Illusionist

COSTUMES Marie Antoinette

DIRECTOR Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

DOCU FEATURE An Inconvenient Truth

DOCU SHORT Recycled Life

EDITING United 93

FOREIGN LANGUAGE Pan's Labyrinth

MAKEUP Pan's Labyrinth

ORIGINAL SCORE The Queen

ORIGINAL SONG I Need To Wake Up (An Inconvenient Truth)

PICTURE Babel

SHORT ANIMATED No Time for Nuts

SHORT LIVE ACTION Helmer and Son

SOUND EDITING Letters from Iwo Jima

SOUND MIXING Dreamgirls

VISUAL EFFECTS Pirates of the Caribbean

SCREENPLAY - ADAPTED The Departed

SCREENPLAY - ORIGINAL Little Miss Sunshine

Supporting Actress is the most competitive category, and Supporting Actor the least interesting.  I'd like to see Adriana Barraza or Abby Breslin win. 

Ladbrokes odds on Helen Mirran are now 1:66.

With fourteen correct guesses and ten... not so much, I wouldn't have done so well in an Oscar pool. But I still technically came out on top, so yay me.

The short films tripped me up, but then those are always kinda tricky. The fact that I picked something other than Inconvenient Truth for Feature Doc says a lot about me.

My cynical (but not very savy) pick for Director was (happily) proven wrong. My adapted screenplay pick was on the money, though my original screenplay pick was way off the mark (Little Miss Sunshine? Really?). There were no surprises in the acting categories, though my mom was thinking Peter O'Toole was a foregone conclusion, though she has no idea what movie he was nominated for.

On an unrelated note, are the Oscar people in love with interpretive dance or something? Silhouetted tumblers?  

Logic Hat Online- logichat.org

Yeah, I coulda done without the interpretive dance bits. I so didn't understand that at all. Thank you for trying to be artsy and all, but please. The telecast ran over by almost an hour...we could have eliminated all the ridiculous dancing and been right on the nose.

I'm relatively happy over all the winners, though I'm definitely disgusted with Jennifer Hudson winning because frankly I think her performance was about as remarkable as the one Marisa Tomei received her Oscar for with My Cousin Vinny. I had an overwhelming urge to punch her in the head during her acceptance speech. And frankly I was disappointed that An Inconvenient Truth won because it's about as much a documentary as Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11. But whatever. Between the Dixie Chicks sweeping the Grammys and this little win for Gore, the Los Angeles basin must be smothered in smug right now.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

This is the first year I've ever watched the whole blooming telecast, and it's purely because it was an assigment for Film class.

I don't know about anyone else, but to make the time pass, I was constantly checking The Hater 's live Oscar blog during commercials. It was really the only thing that kept me going, besides wanting to see how on the money my predictions were.

8:45pm: Art Direction is the first award? Way to kick things into overdrive, Oscars. Half of your audience just went to get another drink.

8:50pm: WOW! A bunch of silhouetted tumblers just turned into an Oscar statue. Maybe everyone is right: Oscar night is the most magical night of the year! I can't wait to see those tumblers turn into other things, like maybe a picture of Alan Arkin, or a diagram of Beyonce's face!

Logic Hat Online- logichat.org

With 13 (counted wrong earlier) out of 24 correct picks, I was the winner in our small group but the runners up all had 7 or 8. There was that bonus question too, though. Would Anna Nicole be mentioned in the list of deaths? Should get an extra point for getting that right. Still living on the glory of 22 of 24 in 2005. Those were the days! I must say, I'll never again trust Vegas odds OR Entertainment Weekly, thank you very much. Lots of upsets in the lesser categories.

I loved the Jack Black-Will Ferrell-John C Reilly number. Thought Ellen was fun and comfie. What's with Jack Nicholson's head? Thought the Dreamgirls number with Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson and the other girl was enjoyable and loved Beyonce's red dress. I always enjoy the montage segments with old films and particularly enjoyed the one with the screenwriters on film. Forest Whitaker had the best acceptance speech and his wife looked gorgeous -- loved the earrings and the dress, especially the color!

Helen Mirren -- picture of class -- looked spectacularly just right. She could not have chosen a more perfect dress for her body, her coloring, and her age. Missed Halle Barry. Where was Charlize Theron? Thought Nicole Kidman's red dress with the oversize bow, looking like you what you might see in Christmas automobile ads, was an atrocity. I wonder if Tom Cruise used to have a Scientologist fashion consultant working with her when they were married. That was when her gowns were always in the top ten best category from my perspective. Kirsten Dunst's hair = FEH. The long bangs cast a bad shadow on her face; the coy sleeves on what could have been a pretty dress capped off a bad look for her. Penelope Cruz's dress = pretty but I would have preferred she have her hair down as she did at the Golden Globes. Then she would have been perfect. Gwyneth Paltrow's dress was a lovely piece of engineering. I'll need a better look but I think it really worked well. Jennifer Lopez's dress = not quite sure. At first I liked it but something was a little off. The empire neckline works best with very thin model types. Throw in a bustline and it can translate to a pregnant appearnce. Kate Winslet's pale green reminded me of either a hospital gown or a hair salon frock. Maybe it was my television. Oh and Cameron Diaz! Yech! That gown looked like it was constructed of the paper used in pattern making -- as if it were the sample for how the designer intended to make the gown once he/she got around to using fabric. Horrible. Cate Blanchett looked good as did Rachel Weisz in their silvery dresses. Abigail Breslin and Will Smith's son were both pretty darned cute doing their presentation! Toby Maquire's hair = didn't like the slicked down a little dab'll do ya look. Martin Scorsese's eyebrows were magnificent and his acceptance speech was vibrant and wonderfully off the cuff. Gael Garcia-Bernal didn't really need the faux-intellectual black rimmed glasses. Next year he'll probably come with a buzz cut which is generally what seems to happen when attractive male actors start taking themselves very seriously.

Lastly what is the Academy Awards without a John Williams nomination? PERFECT! Loved the tribute to Ennio Morricone and his Italian acceptance speech. Not sure Clint's translation was on the money but I'm also not sure he was translating.

Fun evening!

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

"Every day holds a new beginning and every hour holds the promise of an Invitation to Love." 

If I counted right, B scored 16 correct with his predictions!  The winner is...

B!

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

15 out of 24, but I missed both Best Picture and Best Director.  Also missed any category with the word "short" in it.  Biggest surprise was the editing award.

I thought the tumblers were kinda cool, but I'm glad they limited the bits to about ten seconds.  They should have done the same thing with the Dreamgirls songs.

I still get 16 out of 24 for you, Brian. Are you sure you're counting right?

Never mind.  I see it was The Queen for Score where I counted you correct when it was actually Babel.  15 = a respectable score all the same and still the winner here. 

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin