Predict The Oscar Winners (79th Annual Academy Awards)
 

Best Picture The Departed, Alt: Letters From Iwo Jima

Directing Martin Scorsese, The Departed, Alt: Paul Greengrass, United 93

Animated Feature Cars, Alt: Happy Feet
Documentary Feature An Inconvenient Truth, Alt: Deliver Us From Evil
Foreign Language Film Pan's Labyrinth, Alt: The Lives Of Others

Actor Forest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland, Alt: Peter O'Toole, Venus
Actress Helen Mirren, The Queen, Alt: Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Supporting Actor Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine, Alt: Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Supporting Actress Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls, Alt: Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine

Original Screenplay Little Miss Sunshine, Alt: The Queen
Adapted Screenplay The Departed, Alt: Children Of Men

Cinematography Children Of Men, Alt: Pan's Labyrinth
Art Direction Pan's Labyrinth, Alt: Dreamgirls
Costume Design Dreamgirls, Alt: The Devil Wears Prada
Makeup Pan's Labyrinth, Alt: Apocalypto

Music (Original Song) "Listen", Dreamgirls, Alt: "I Need To Wake Up", An Inconvenient Truth
Music (Original Score) Pan's Labyrinth, Alt: Babel

Editing The Departed, Alt: United 93
Sound Editing Letters From Iwo Jima, Alt: Blood Diamond
Sound Mixing Dreamgirls, Alt: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Visual Effects Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Alt: Superman Returns

EDIT: I've heard lots of late buzz about a surge in the number of Letters votes in the last few days before the ballots closed. It's my dark horse, benefitting from being the last film watched and the film that has that lasting power to stay with you, whether you watched it first or last.

Picture - The Departed

Director - Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Actor - Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Actress - Helen Mirren, The Queen
Supporting Actor - Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Original Screenplay - Babel
Adapted Screenplay - The Departed

Editing - United 93
Cinematography - Children of Men
Art Direction - Pan's Labyrinth
Costume Design - Marie Antoinette
Makeup - Pan's Labyrinth
Visual Effects - Pirates of the Caribbean
Sound - Dreamgirls
Sound Editing - Letters from Iwo Jima
Original Score - The Queen
Original Song - Dreamgirls, "Love You I Do"

Animated Feature - Cars
Foreign Language Picture - Pan's Labyrith
Documentary Feature - An Inconvenient Truth
Documentary Short - Two Hands
Animated Short - Maestro
Live Action Short - West Bank Story

Come play along...

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=492842

I have my picks posted on Oscar.com for DVD Talk's contest. I do think the only races with any real type of suspense is Picture, Editing, and possibly Foreign Language, as I keep reading this Lives of Others possible upset. Aside from those, it's gonna be a boring show, but I am excited as always to tune in. I'm hoping the big darkhorse of the night is Mark Wahlberg winning for Supporting Actor. If that actually happened, The Departed has Picture locked up. It may have it anyways.

PICTURE --- "Letters from Iwo Jima"
DIRECTOR --- Clint Eastwood ("Letters from Iwo Jima")
ACTOR --- Forest Whitaker ("Last King of Scotland")
ACTRESS --- Helen Mirren ("The Queen")
SUPP. ACTOR --- Jackie Earle Haley ("Little Children")
SUPP. ACTRESS --- Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls")
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY --- "The Departed"
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY --- "The Queen"
FOREIGN FILM --- "Pan's Labyrinth"
ORIGINAL SONG --- "I Need to Wake Up" ("An Inconvenient Truth")
ORIGINAL SCORE --- "The Queen"
CINEMATOGRAPHY --- "Pan's Labyrinth"
ART DIRECTION --- "Dreamgirls"
COSTUME --- "Dreamgirls"
EDITING --- "The Departed"
SOUND MIXING --- "Flags of Our Fathers"
SOUND EDITING --- "Letters from Iwo Jima"
VISUAL EFFECTS --- "Pirates of the..."
MAKEUP --- "Pan's Labyrinth"
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE --- "An Inconvenient Truth"
ANIMATED FEATURE --- "Happy Feet"

I generally agree. Picture and Editing are the unsettled ones. There's enough question in a few categories where an upset would be a huge shock, such as in Sound Editing, Costumes, and maybe Score. But I expect the leaders to win. Then of course there's the three I will always get wrong every year: animated short, live action short, and documentary short.

Yeah, the tech awards this year could go 2 or 3 different ways. King Kong took 3 of them last year, so that may my choices easy. But this year, I don't see many picking Pirates to take alot, just effects. So that leaves some of the others up for grabs, although I think we'll hear Pan's Labryinth and Dreamgirls called out more than once.

These picks are for who I think will win, not who I think should win:

BEST PICTURE
Little Miss Sunshine

BEST ACTOR
Forest Whitaker - LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Eddie Murphy - DREAMGIRLS

BEST ACTRESS
Helen Mirren - THE QUEEN

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Jennifer Hudson - DREAMGIRLS

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
CARS - John Lassetar

ART DIRECTION
Dreamgirls - John Mayer, Nancy Haigh

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Children of Men - Emmanuel Lubeski

COSTUME DESIGN
Marie Antoinette - Milena Canonero

BEST DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese - THE DEPARTED

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
An Inconvenient Truth

EDITING
United 93 - Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse, Richard Pearson

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Mexico - PAN'S LABYRINTH

MAKEUP
Pan's Labyrinth - David Marti and Montse Ribe

MUSIC - ORIGINAL SCORE
Alexandre Desplat - THE QUEEN

MUSIC - ORIGINAL SONG
"Listen" - Dreamgirls

SOUND EDITING
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Christopher Boyes, George Watters II

SOUND MIXING
Dreamgirls - Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer, Willie Burton

VISUAL EFFECTS
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson, Allen Hall

BEST WRITING - ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE DEPARTED - William Monahan

BEST WRITING - ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE - Michael Arndt

--------------
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
The Little Matchgirl

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Two Hands

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)

Here's the ones I just did at a different site based on what I've seen and heard:



1. Best Picture: “Babel”

2. Actor: Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland.”

3. Actress: Helen Mirren, “The Queen”

4. Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”

5. Supporting Actress: Rinko Kikuchi, “Babel.”

6. Directing: Martin Scorsese, “The Departed”

7. Foreign Language Film: Germany; “Pan's Labyrinth,”

8. Adapted Screenplay: William Monahan, “The Departed”

9. Original Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga, “Babel”

10. Animated Feature Film: “Cars,”

11. Art Direction: “Pan's Labyrinth,”

12. Cinematography: “Pan's Labyrinth,”

13. Sound Mixing: “Flags of Our Fathers,”

14. Sound Editing: “Letters From Iwo Jima,”

15. Original Score: PASS

16. Original Song: PASS

17. Costume: PASS

18. Documentary Feature: “An Inconvenient Truth,”

19. Documentary (short subject): PASS

20. Film Editing: “The Departed,”

21. Makeup: “Pan's Labyrinth.”

22. Animated Short Film: PASS

23. Live Action Short Film: PASS

24. Visual Effects: “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,”

An early indicator of who may win The Big One at the end of the night may be who takes editing. If it ain't one of the BP nominees (and it is very likely it will go to United 93), look for a Letters or Sunshine upset.

Best Picture THE DEPARTED
Actor in a Leading Role Forest Whitaker|THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Actor in a Supporting Role Eddie Murphy|DREAMGIRLS
Actress in a Leading Role Helen Mirren|THE QUEEN
Actress in a Supporting Role Jennifer Hudson|DREAMGIRLS
Animated Feature Film CARS
Art Direction DREAMGIRLS
Cinematography CHILDREN OF MEN
Costume Design DREAMGIRLS
Directing THE DEPARTED
Documentary Feature AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Documentary Short Subject TWO HANDS
Film Editing THE DEPARTED
Foreign Language Film PAN´S LABYRINTH
Makeup PAN´S LABYRINTH
Music (Original Score) THE QUEEN
Music (Original Song) "Listen" - DREAMGIRLS
Short Film (Animated) MAESTRO
Short Film (Live Action) WEST BANK STORY
Sound Editing LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
Sound Mixing DREAMGIRLS
Visual Effects PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN´S CHEST
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) THE DEPARTED
Writing (Original Screenplay) BABEL

Even if United 93 takes Editing, I still say it's Departed or Babel. The only way I see Little Miss Sunshine upsetting is if Arkin wins Supporting Actor. That may signal the upset. I don't think there's enough support for Letters. If Babel wins Editing, it has a better chance, but I still think The Departed wins. I picked Babel for Editing. If The Departed wins for Editing, it points towards a near sweep as it's expected to take Director and Screenplay.

I believe they are pushing the Supporting categories towards the last part of the show, which means for the first 2 hours, we'll be hearing tech awards only. Editing is the only indicator out of all of those that may give us a hint on what will win later.

15/21 correct predictions, with 5 other eventual winners coming from my "less likely alternate" picks. The only catergory (apart from Shorts, which I was never equipped well enough to predict) that I got completely wrong was Costume Design. Not bad. The Departed won all the ones I knew it could (and wanted it to) win and enjoyed a nice little Almost-Sweep. So it was a great Oscars for me.

15/24 (62.5%)

BTW, what are considered "major" categories? I want to figure out how I did in those...

Not surprised at all to see The Departed take Best Picture, since it's a solid film and alot of focus by the Academy voters was on Martin Scorsese winning Best Director, it obviously helped get that film the Best Picture win. Little Miss Sunshine won 2 Oscars (best supporting actor and best original screenplay) and I am happy with that! That film has won plenty of nice awards and it deserves a ton of credit. It's also nice to see An Inconvenient Truth get the Oscar for Best Documentary and Best Song.

I'd say most people would agree on Picture, Director, All four Acting, and the two Screenwriting Oscars as the eight major ones ... looks like you went 7/8. Though ... with so much talk about it's importance to a Picture win, and it's conspicuous placement as the 5th last award to be announced ... it could be argued that Editing is starting to take a place among those "top" catergories.