Oscars!

The entire year is filled with various sports championship, redicuous award shows and opporunities for Hollywood and the celebrity population at large to praise each other and make the rest of us hate our already plentiful lives. The way I see it, there are only two exceptions I maintain throught out the year: Formula 1 and the Oscars. Who cares about the former, plus the latter's time has come as well as the time for my completely shocking and awe-inspiring predictions. OK, so maybe not awe-inspiring. But never the less, forget about the NCAA's or all of Mariah Carey's Grammy's, it's Oscar weekend!

This is how it will work. I name each category, who I think will win, and the name of the film or crew recipiant(if applicable). Then who I want to win, and maybe a description of why, will be in parenthesis next to it. No parenthetical reference indicates the winner and my hopeful are one in the same. I will also comment on the prediction if I feel the need to. Please note: I don't really take this that seriously but when you don't really care about sports, and the Grammy's suck, there's not a lot of popular culture for me to be excitied about. So endulge me.

Actor in a Leading Role
Philip Seymore Hoffman - Capote
He simply has to...see the film if you haven't...

Actor in a Supporting Role
Jake Gyllenhaal - Brokeback Mountain (George Clooney - Syriana: he was my favorite supporting performance this year but it'll never happen)
Jake's good in this movie and the hype is in his favor

Actress in a Leading Role
Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line (I want her to win, but I must give Felicity Huffman honorable mention)
It'd be nice to see a local girl, masterfully portraying another local girl, win...

Actress in a Supporting Role
Michelle Williams - Brokeback Mountain (Catherine Keener - Capote)
All five women in this category deserve the award.

Animated Feature
Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit - Nick Park and Steve Box
They spent five years on this film and it shows.

Art Direction
King Kong - Grant Major, Dan Hennah, and Simon Bright
Sin City was snubbed for a nomination here.

Cinematography
Good Night and Good Luck - Robert Elswit
Beautiful and tense; simply terrific

Costume Design
Walk the Line - Arianne Phillips (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Gabriella Pescucci)
The Academy seems to favor the realisitc and accessable (don't hold me to this, or any of it, for that matter)

Directing
Brokeback Mountain - Ang Lee (anything but Crash)
Lee will get it, but Clooney (Goodnight), Miller (Capote), and Spielberg (Munich) all masterfully made original films. From a direction, I repeat - direction, point of view, Crash is such a rip-off of PT Anderson's Magnolia, it should never have been nominated. If you don't believe me, rent both movies and watch them consecutively.

Documentary
March of the Penguins - Luc Jacquet and Yves Darondeau (Murderball - Henry-Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro)

Documentary Short
God Sleeps in Rwanda - Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman
I haven't seen any of these, but Rwanda is a favorite subject so I'm assuming (yes, I know what happens when I assume).

Film Editing
Crash - Hughes Winborne (The Constant Gardner - Claire Simpson)
Everyone seems to love Crash, but Gardner was pieced together so well; plus the editor, Claire Simpson, previously won for Platoon so she's good.

Foreign Language Film
Tsotsi
I haven't seen any of these but the word is out for Tsotsi, or maybe Paradise Now; I like the whole suicide bomber idea.

Make-up
Star Wars:Episode III The Revenge of the Sith - Dave Elsey and Nikki Gooley

Music (Score)
Brokeback Mountain - Gustavo Santaolalla
Original, minimal and spacial without being minimalist.

Music (Song)
"Travelin' Thru" from Transamerica - Dolly Parton
It's Dolly, come on...

Best Picture
Brokeback Mountain - Diana Ossana and James Schamus, Producers (Capote)
Oh, the hype...Capote really was the best so please support it.

Short Film (Animated)
How should I know?

Short Film (Live Action)
Where do you see these things anyway?

Sound Editing
King Kong - Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn
Awesome...

Sound Mixing
Walk the Line - Paul Massey, D.M. Hemphill and Peter F. Kurland
All of the applause and such...tough work

Visual Effects
King Kong - Joe Letteri, Brian Van’t Hul, Christian Rivers and Richard Taylor
About the best looking film I have ever seen.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Brokeback Mountain (Capote)
Larry McMurtrey...he's great, but "In Cold Blood" created a genre and the adapted text was terrific.

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Crash - Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco (Syriana)
Again, Crash seems to be a favorite, but I really appreciated the complexity and vision behind Syriana, though the execution hurt it a bit.

OK, that's it. I'm not an expert, I just like movies and at the present moment, this is more interesting than anything else I have to do today. And besides, even the "experts" have no idea. Sunday at 8/7 central!