Academy Awards Predictions

The awards show is this Sunday. Who do you think will win? Here’s the list of nominations. I’ve seen pretty much all the main contenders:

“Juno,” “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood,” “Michael Clayton,” “Atonement,” “Eastern Promises,” “In the Valley of Elah,” “Into the Wild,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” “I’m Not There,” “Gone Baby Gone,” all the animated films, “Sicko” and “3:10 to Yuma.”

My favorite film of the year is “3:10 to Yuma” but it was only nominated for Sounding Mixing and Original Score awards. Boo.

Entertainment Weekly (EW) has predicted that “No Country for Old Men” will win for best picture. It was good, but I don’t think it deserves all the hype. Javier Bardem is the frontfunner for Best Supporting Actor and the movie’s directors are also predicted to win. Daniel Day-Lewis is rightfully predicted to win the Best Actor award. I don’t know any of the Best Actress nominees except for Ellen Page in “Juno” but she’s predicted to lose. I’m cheering for her. Tilda Swinton is predicted to win the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in “Michael Clayton.”
“Persepolis” is nominated for Best Animated Film but is predicated to lose to “Ratatouille.” I hope the predictions are wrong.  All this reminds me of when “Paradise Now” was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes and Oscars. At the former, they read out the nominees and their country and when they read out “Paradise Now,” I was ecstatic to hear her say “PALESTINE.”  I was even more euphoric when the movie won!

Lastly, I hope “Sicko” wins so we can hear another burning Michael Moore victory speech (and because I liked “Sicko”).

Maybe he’ll endorse Obama’s candidacy as the man who opposed the Iraq War from day 1. And how about Hawaii and Wisconsin!?!