Oscar Predictions!

Tonight is Oscar Sunday (aka The Best Night of the Year right after my birthday and Christmas) and I thought I would offer up my predictions for who will win tonight. No one knows what's going to happen tonight, so it should make for an interesting night.

Best Picture: Babel
Why: Oscar loves pretentious, heavy films that say something and Babel definitely fits this bill. It’s nearest competitors also contain things Oscar has an adverse reaction to: The Departed is too violent and Little Miss Sunshine is too funny.

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Why: Give him the damn trophy already. The Departed is smart, stylish, hilarious and Scorsese’s best in years. What more does Oscar want?

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Why: He’s won almost every precursor award and the performance seems to be total Oscar-bait.

Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Why: She’s won every precursor known to mankind. There’s no way she’s walking away empty handed.

Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Why: While there has been some anti-Eddie backlash in the past couple of weeks (mostly due to terrible reviews for Norbit), I still believe he has the best chance of winning. Alan Arkin is not beloved or remembered enough to be rewarded a refund Oscar (although I could be proven wrong).

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Why: She gives the best performance in this category (well, I haven’t seen Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal yet, but I doubt she could compare), and although that usually means nothing to Oscar, J. Hud has too much buzz surrounding her to lose.

Best Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Departed

Best Cinematography: Children of Men

Best Editing: Babel

Best Art Direction: Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Costume Design: Dreamgirls

Best Score: The Queen

Best Song: Dreamgirls (“Listen”)

Best Makeup: Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Sound: Dreamgirls

Best Sound Editing: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Best Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Best Animated Film: Cars

Best Foreign Film: Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth

Best Documentary (Short): The Blood of Yingzhou District

Best Short Film (Animated): The Little Matchgirl

Best Short Film (Live Action): Binta and the Great Idea

NUMBER OF WINS:
Dreamgirls- 5
Pan’s Labyrinth- 3
Babel- 2
The Departed- 2
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest- 2
The Queen- 2
Cars- 1
Children of Men- 1

An Inconvenient Truth- 1
The Last King of Scotland- 1
Little Miss Sunshine- 1