The Oscar Movies

With the Academy Awards just around the corner, I thought I’d give you the low-down on what’s what at this year’s ceremony. This year's show will be hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin with presentations from a host of stars including Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Steve Carell and Sacha Baron Cohen. This year, Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the way with 9 nominations each and Meryl Streep gets her 16th nod, which puts her as the most nominated actor in the history of the Oscars.

With that said, I think The Hurt Locker is set to gain the most wins from its nominations.

It’s pretty much sure to net Best Director for Katherine Bigelow, and the Cinematography and Editing awards. It will probably win Best Picture which will be another kick in the teeth for James Cameron, Katherine Bigelow’s ex-husband who had a very disappointing performance and this years BAFTA’s and had to watch Katherine’s flick pick-up 6 of its 8 nominations. Avatar will obviously get the Visual Effects award, but I think/hope that’s all it nets.

But with 10 films nominated in the Best Picture category this year it could be a bit of a surprise. If I were to hazzard a guess at what that surprise win might be, I’d pick An Education.

It’s a stellar British movie with the screenplay by Nick Hornby and starring Carey Mulligan, who picked up the BAFTA for Best Actress this week, Peter Sarsgaard and Olivia Williams.

The Best Actor in a Leading Role will probably go to Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, who has four previous nominations and no wins and it’ll be about time he gets it.

Or it could go to Colin Firth for A Single Man, who picked up the BAFTA this week for the same role. A Single Man is written and directed by Tom Ford, noted fashion designer and is a “gay role”, which the Academy always awards (see Sean Penn Milk).

Best Actress in a Leading Role is set to go to Sandra Bullock, who looks like she's going to appear to pick up her Razzie award the night before. However, Carey Mulligan gave a sensational performance in An Education as the young girl coming-of-age (another Academy favourite).

Christopher Waltz or Matt Damon could walk away with an award for Best Supporting Actor, and it looks like Mo’Nique’s performance in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire could net her the Best Supporting Actress award. Althoug, it wouldn’t be unlikely that Vera Farmiga or Anna Kendrick could win for Up in the Air.

Best Animated Feature Film is really between Up and The Princess and the Frog, one a Pixar creation, the other a hark back to the old day Disney with hand-drawn animation. My money is on Up, but my hopes rest on The Princess and the Frog.

Best Screenplay (Adapted)in my opinion should go to An Education, and definitely not Up in the Air because as Jason Reitman shows us again, he cannot write endings with the film really fizzling out with the last half hour to go. Best Screenplay (Original) will go to either Up or The Hurt Locker. It’s hard to tell. Up is a vary daring piece of Disney, which deals with the more heartbreaking and depressing side of life, and The Hurt Locker is such an epic piece of filmmaking.

We'll have to see tomorrow night who gets what, but as always it will be nice to see such deserved wins.