The Scorecard ’09

Best Picture
– Will Win: Avatar
– Should Win: The Hurt Locker
– In A Perfect World…: Up or Inglourious Basterds

Best Actor
– Will Win: Jeff Bridges
– Should Win: Colin Firth

Best Actress
– Will Win: Sandra Bullock
– Should Win: Carey Mulligan or Gabourey Sidibe

Best Supporting Actor
– Will Win: Christoph Waltz
– Should Win: Christoph Waltz

Best Supporting Actress
– Will Win: Mo’Nique
– Should Win: Mo’Nique

Best Animated Feature Film
– Will Win: Up
– Should Win: Up

Best Art Direction (whatever that is)
– Will Win: Avatar
– Should Win: Avatar (sure, why not)

Best Cinematography
– Will Win: Avatar
– Should Win: Avatar

Best Costume Design
– Will Win: The Young Victoria
– Should Win: The Young Victoria (period piece = shoe in)

Best Documentary
– Will Win: The Cove
– Should Win: The Cove
– In A Perfect World…: Anvil! The Story of Anvil

Best Documentary Short
– Will Win: The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
– Should Win: Who the hell cares

Best Editing
– Will Win: Avatar
– Should Win: The Hurt Locker

Best Foreign Film
– Will Win: The White Ribbon
– Should Win: Haven’t seen a single foreign film all year, but I’ll go with A Prophet or The White Ribbon anyway.

Best Makeup
– Will Win: The Young Victoria
– Should Win: No opinion whatsoever

Best Original Score
– Will Win: Avatar
– Should Win: Again, no opinion whatsoever. Still sore that There Will Be Blood didn’t get recognized back in ’07.

Best Original Song
– Will Win: “The Weary Kind” – Crazy Heart
– Should Win: “The Weary Kind” – Crazy Heart

Best Animated Short Film
– Will Win: A Matter of Loaf and Death
– Should Win: A Matter of Loaf and Death (haven’t seen it, but it’s Wallace and Gromit, and Wallace and Gromit rocks)

Best Short Film
– Will Win: The Door
– Should Win: How the hell should I know

Best Sound Editing
– Will Win: Avatar
– Should Win: Avatar, based on my “expertise” on the subject which is more fully explored in a recent piece I wrote for The LAMB.

Best Sound Mixing
– Will Win: Avatar
– Should Win: Whatever

Best Visual Effects
– Will Win: Avatar
– Should Win: Avatar
– In A Perfect World…: Zeroes

Best Adapted Screenplay
– Will Win: Up in the Air
– Should Win: I hear In the Loop was really good

Best Original Screenplay
– Will Win: Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
– Should Win: Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Well, that’s what I’m thinkin’, folks. Won this thing in last year’s family pool, here’s to hoping I don’t totally screw the pooch this time around.

FUN FACT: The crew over at Rotten Tomatoes has put together a nifty little Oscar ballot here for everyone to play along. So print that sucker out and get pumped for Sunday! YEEHAW!