Right, I've been completely obsessed with the wait for and aftermath of My Blueberry Nights for so long I've actually forgotten the oscars are coming. So I'll do a few things here, all vis-a-vis the oscars. Firstly, 2 sets of predictions. The first one will be the "real" predictions, the cold, cynical, conservative choices I think they'll go for, then in brackets the "out of left-field" possibilities.
Picture : No Country For Old Men (could be anyone's, but if they were going to go different Atonement is the most their thing)
Actor : Day Lewis - There Will Be Blood (same)
Actress : Christie - Away From Her (Marion Cotillard - La Môme)
S. Actor : Bardem - No Country For Old Men (if anyone beats him it's Holbrook - Into the Wild)
S. Actress : Blanchett - I'm Not There (this could be anyone's)
Direction : Coens - No Country For Old Men (same, but only PTA can beat them I think)
O. Screenplay : Juno (same)
A. Screenplay : No Country for Old Men (same, although I would ADORE another Ron Harwood shocker for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Cinematography : The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (No Country for Old Men)
Editing : No Country for Old Men
Art Direction : Atonement (same)
Costume Design : Elizabeth : The Golden Age (same)
Sound Mixing : No Country for Old Men
Sound Editing : No Country for Old Men (There Will Be Blood)
VFX : Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (Transformers)
Make Up : La Môme ( POTC 3)
Song : Falling Slowly - Once (That's How You Know - Enchanted)
Score : Atonement (same)
Animated : Ratatouille (same)
Foreign Language : The Counterfeiters (if anything, Katyn)
Documentary : No End in Sight (same)
And doing that has bored me so much I have no desire to talk about anything else, lol. All I'll say is, in the major categories the *only* people I'm rooting for are Linney, Viscount Hoffman (because I hate category fraud, but Casey is the best performance nominated so I wouldn't mind a win that's not going to happen) and Julian Schnabel. The rest, AMPAS did such a horrendous job in an already poor year it's almost impossible to *want* anyone to win. I mean, I think No Country... is the best of the BP films (wouldn't make my top 10 of the year though...) but I'd find it HILARIOUS if Juno won, just so I could say "Yes, but the oscars think the best films of the last 3 years were Crash, The Departed and Juno!" and it would also be amusing for anything to beat the Coens' film just to see people who like that the best whine their asses off.