Random Acts of Mind by Dones

Here’s the list of Oscar nominees, underlining my predictions for each. As always, note that I haven’t seen many of these films (still waiting for my screener DVDs to reach me, ha ha); I will indicate the ones I have seen by putting them in italics. If you’re an avid Random Acts reader, you know that you can always find the first Oscar predictions in the blogosphere right here. My ‘every other year’ curse has caught up with me, unfortunately, so here they are a little late. (Note to Oscars.com: Please provide a slimmed-down nominees list without all the producers, if you would please. Formatting is a b****). As I always say, you don’t really need to see all the films to know who’ll probably win. I will update this post to indicate new films I’ve seen as needed, but will not change my actual predictions. The ones I hope to see before the Oscars ceremony? Inglorious Basterds, The Hurt Locker, The White Ribbon, and The Young Victoria.

Impressions so far:

- I would like to thank the Academy for increasing the number of Best Picture nominees to 10 films. This will recognize more deserving films, while silencing any whiners like me that, for example, animated features aren’t included. Case in point: Wall-E should have been nominated for best picture in its day. The jury’s still out as to whether foreign films like my favorite La Vita e Bella (Life Is Beautiful) would have been nominated in a 10-film field, but I’d like to think it would.
- That said, where the heck is Star Trek on the list of Best Picture nominees??
- I thought District 9 was a really good film, but sadly (if deservedly) it will be overshadowed by Avatar in the categories it deserves to win (the technical ones).
- The Hurt Locker probably deserves to win most of these awards, but Avatar will rule. Avatar wasn’t that good, but it was good enough (and far too much of a game-changer) for the Academy to give it the sweep.
- I would also like to thank the Academy for not just taking the 10 Golden Globe nominees for Best Drama & Best Comedy for their Best Picture nominees. I was dying to think that The Hangover might have been nominated…
- This is the year for Avatar, Precious, and Sandra Bullock. Really. Crazy, huh?

***Updated 3/7/10 at 6:18pm CST to reflect the nominated films I have seen since these predictions were first published.***

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
82nd Annual Academy Awards Nominations

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Best animated feature film of the year
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up”

Achievement in art direction
“Avatar”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“The Young Victoria”

Achievement in cinematography
“Avatar”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The White Ribbon”

Achievement in costume design
“Bright Star”
“Coco before Chanel”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“The Young Victoria”

Achievement in directing
“Avatar” -James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” -Kathryn Bigelow
“Inglourious Basterds” -Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” -Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” -Jason Reitman

Best documentary feature
“Burma VJ”
“The Cove”
“Food, Inc.”
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
“Which Way Home”

Best documentary short subject
“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner”
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant”
“Music by Prudence”
“Rabbit à la Berlin”

Achievement in film editing
“Avatar”
“District 9″
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Best foreign language film of the year
“Ajami” -Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos”  -Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow” -Peru
“Un Prophète”  -France
“The White Ribbon”  -Germany

Achievement in makeup
“Il Divo”
“Star Trek”
“The Young Victoria”

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Avatar”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“Up”

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog”
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog”
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36″
“Take It All” from “Nine”
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart”

Best motion picture of the year
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

Best animated short film
“French Roast”
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)”
“Logorama”
“A Matter of Loaf and Death”

Best live action short film
“The Door”
“Instead of Abracadabra”
“Kavi”
“Miracle Fish”
“The New Tenants”

Achievement in sound editing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Up”

Achievement in sound mixing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Achievement in visual effects
“Avatar”
“District 9″
“Star Trek”

Adapted screenplay
“District 9″
“An Education”
“In the Loop”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“Up in the Air”

Original screenplay
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The Messenger”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 7:39 am and is filed under Current Events, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.