2007 Academy Award Predictions

Hey guys, sorry this post is coming so late. It'll be the same deal as usual: I'll bold the projected winner and if it is different from who I think deserves it (from the choices), I'll use an asterisk (*). This is your chance to impress all your new co-workers in the plethora of office Oscar pools out there. :P


Best Motion Picture of the Year:
Babel
The Departed*
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood diamond)
Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson)
Peter O'Toole (Venus)
Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness)
Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Penelope Cruz (Volver)
Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandel)
Helen Mirren (The Queen)
Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada)
Kate Winslet (Little Children)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine)*
Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children)
Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond)
Eddie Murphy (Dream Girls)
Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Adriana Barraza (Babel)
Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal)
Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine)
Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)*

Best Achievement in Directing:
Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima)
Stephen Frears (The Queen)
Paul Greengrass (United 93)
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel)
Martin Scorsese (The Departed)

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen:
Babel
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine*
Pans Labyrinth
The Queen

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published:
'Borat'
Children of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal


I'm going to stop there since I imagine most people don't care about the other categories. All in all I'm mostly disappointed with the list of nominees anyway: Jack Nicholson and Forest Whitaker gave the definitive performances of the year and it's sad that only one of them is being represented at the year's biggest award show; and even worse, is the blatant slap to Mel Gibson and Apocalypto.

It seems that every year the Academy gets more political in their choices...or maybe they always have been and I've just been naïve -- either way, the luster is gone. I'll probably end up watching a recorded version of the show so I can skip around to the few moments I want to see (namely, Marty getting his long-overdue Oscar).