Final Oscar Predictions

Tomorrow is my favorite day of the year besides Christmas and my birthday- Oscar Day! And this year I'm even more appreciative since we were this close to not even having a ceremony this year. After the Golden Globes fiasco, if the Oscar's hadn't gone on, this diva would have thrown a diva fit so enormous Beyonce would have been like, "Calm down!" So, in preparation for tomorrow, here are my predictions and thoughts on who could win.

Best Picture
Will Win: Say what you want about a potential Juno upset, I believe No Country For Old Men will triumph in the end. As much as the logic for a No Country-Blood split makes sense, therefore allowing the popular choice Juno to pull ahead, I doubt it will happen. There Will Be Blood is too highbrow and more people will vote for the more easily accessible No Country, therefore canceling the split.
Should Win: Atonement has gotten a bad rap for being nothing more than a pretty English costume drama. Let me say that I have seen many an English costume drama and none have moved me as much as this film. Plus, the film is less concerned with visual splendor and more concerned with the characters.

Best Actor
Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis. Duh.
Should Win: In any other year I would probably say Day-Lewis, but I must admit I was slightly more impressed with Viggo Mortensen and his impenetrable Russian mobster.

Best Actress
Will Win: It's a tough race between Christie and Cotillard (with Page being the darkhorse), but I have to go with Julie Christie because of her veteran status and her major precursor wins (the Globe, SAG).
Should Win: Marion Cotillard, obviously. But that's not to say that Christie and Page aren't entirely worthy in their own rights (I haven't seen Linney yet).

Best Supporting Actor
Will Win: I shouldn't even have to say it- Javier Bardem.
Should Win: Casey Affleck gave the greatest performance by a male in any category, but this category fraud is outrageous I'm tempted to just say screw it and go with Bardem. But he is that good, so I'll stay with him.

Best Supporting Actress
Will Win: This is the toughest race of the night with 4 of the women (sorry, Saoirse) still vying for that trophy. I'm going to go with Ruby Dee and the sentimental vote as the winner, but I'll be the first to admit that I could be entirely wrong.
Should Win: If you want to experience a performance of Biblical proportions, watch Tilda Swinton make a full-fledged woman out of a treacly character on paper.

Best Director
Will Win: Joel and Ethan Coen have been winning every director award in sight. You can't stop what's coming. (Ha, you see what I did there? I took the tag line from No Country For Old Men and used it to describe the Coen's impending win. You get it? It's funny, non? Good God, I'm clever)
Should Win: Joel and Ethan Coen. Sometimes it's just that easy.

Best Original Screenplay
Will Win: Diablo Cody has become the new indie darling and this seems like the most logical place Juno will win.
Should Win: Have I every mentioned how much I love Diablo Cody?

Best Adapted Screenplay
Will Win: The No Country For Old Men steamroller is going full steam ahead, so look for Joel and Ethan Coen to win this one as well.
Should Win: Call me crazy, but I think Sarah Polley is the best. I didn't love the movie as a whole, but that screenplay was beautiful, intelligent and extremely well-written.

For the rest of these, I'm going to be upfront and admit that I'm talking out of my ass half the time. We'll see it goes.

Best Cinematography
Will Win: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly needs to win somewhere and here's just as good as any place. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if any of these picked up the prize.
Should Win: I was most impressed with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and that immaculate train robbing scene.

Best Editing
Will Win: The Bourne Ultimatum has already proved influential by the number of cheap imitations.
Should Win: The Bourne Ultimatum is Godard on crack and I loved every second of it.

Best Art Direction
Will Win: I'm going to go with There Will Be Blood simply because I haven't given it a win yet (besides Day-Lewis).
Should Win: I wasn't too terribly impressed with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street or Atonement, so I will go with There Will Be Blood as well.

Best Costume Design
Will Win: Keira Knightley's green dress has already been named the best film costume in the history of cinema. Look for Atonement to easily snatch this prize.
Should Win: The costumes for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street were one of the best parts of the movie.

Best Makeup
Will Win: La Vie en Rose. Anything but Norbit.
Should Win: La Vie en Rose

Best Original Score
Will Win: Atonement has been receiving lots of praise.
Should Win: Atonement has a score that's emotionally compelling and still subtle enough not to overpower the movie. It's the only film score I have on my iPod.

Best Original Song
Will Win: The songs from Enchanted will cancel each other out a la Dreamgirls allowing "Falling Slowly" to pick up the win.
Should Win: I'm torn between the two Amy Adams songs from Enchanted but everytime "Happy Working Song" comes on my iPod, this big goofy grin comes on my face that just won't go away. It's rather embarassing, but that means it's doing its job.

Best Sound
Will Win: Transformers
Should Win: I don't really have any opinion.

Best Sound Editing
Will Win: Transformers
Should Win: No opinion.

Best Visual Effects
Will Win: Transformers
Should Win: No opinion. These last three, in my opinion, are the most boring categories of the night.

Best Animated Film
Will Win: Ratatouille has won every animated prize under the sun, so this one is in the bag.
Should Win: I've only seen Ratatouille and I didn't care for it that much, so I can't really say until I see Persepolis.

Best Foreign-Language Film
Will Win: Oscar loves their Nazi dramas, so expect The Counterfeiters to clean up here.
Should Win: N/A

Best Documentary
Will Win: I think it's between No End in Sight and Sicko, but Michael Moore just won and Sicko didn't have the controversy and passionate following that his previous works have. So expect the critically praised No End in Sight to win this one.
Should Win: I thought Sicko was one of the finest films of the year, but it's the only one I've seen in this category so it's not really fair.

Best Documentary (Short)
Will Win: All of these sound baity as hell, but I'll go with the gays rallying around Freeheld.
Should Win: N/A

Best Short (Live Action)
Will Win: At Night features young adults with cancer and The Tonto Woman sounds like a condensed version of The Searchers. Either could take it, but I'll bet Oscar goes with the cancer patients in At Night.
Should Win: N/A

Best Short (Animated)
Will Win: Madame Tutli-Putli sounds the most interesting and fascinating.
Should Win: N/A

Number of Wins
No Country- 4
Transformers- 3
Atonement- 2
There Will Be Blood- 2
American Gangster- 1
Away From Her- 1
The Bourne Ultimatum- 1
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly- 1
Juno- 1
La Vie en Rose- 1
Once- 1

*Yeah, I know it's pretty bad when Transformers winds up with the second highest number of wins, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Remember in 2005 when Brokeback tied with King Kong and the lesser Crash and Memoirs of a Geisha? Sometimes it works like that.