My Oscar Predictions...

The Oscars are tonight! FI and I will be doing some cooking and baking for the event, but otherwise it's a quiet evening in.

As part of the festivities, here are my Oscar predictions. Mind you, I haven't seen most of these movies. It's been a poor movie watching year. But based on what I've read in the entertainment blogs, articles in the Washington Post, Television Without Pity, and an article by Nate Silver, here are my picks in bold.

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor”
• Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon”
• Sean Penn in “Milk”
• Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
• Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler”

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Josh Brolin in “Milk”
  
• Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”
  
• Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt”
  
• Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight”
  
• Michael Shannon in “Revolutionary Road”

(I think this one is a given, but I really hope RDJ got the win cause he was hysterical in TT.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role

• Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married”
• Angelina Jolie in “Changeling”
  
• Melissa Leo in “Frozen River”
• Meryl Streep in “Doubt”
  
• Kate Winslet in “The Reader”
  

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

• Amy Adams in “Doubt”
  
• Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
  
• Viola Davis in “Doubt”
  
• Taraji P. Henson in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
  
• Marisa Tomei in “The Wrestler”
  

Best animated feature film of the year

• “Bolt”
  
• “Kung Fu Panda”
  
• “WALL-E”

(Loved, loved Wall-E. I wish it had been nominated for Best Picture. This is such a cop-out award.)

Achievement in directing

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, David Fincher
• “Frost/Nixon”, Ron Howard
• “Milk”, Gus Van Sant
• “The Reader”, Stephen Daldry
• “Slumdog Millionaire”, Danny Boyle
  

Best foreign language film of the year

• “The Baader Meinhof Complex”, Germany
• “The Class”, France
• “Departures”, Japan
• “Revanche”, Austria
• “Waltz with Bashir”, Israel
  

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, Alexandre Desplat
• “Defiance”, James Newton Howard
• “Milk”, Danny Elfman
• “Slumdog Millionaire”, A.R. Rahman
• “WALL-E”, Thomas Newman

(The music in Slumdog was off the wall. So pulse-pounding and totally captured the craziness of Mumbai.)

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

• “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E”, Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
• “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire”, Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
• “O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire”, Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
  

(Since I voted for Slumdog for best score, I'm going split my vote and give it to Wall-E for best song.)

Best motion picture of the year

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
  
• “Frost/Nixon”
  
• “Milk”
  
• “The Reader”
  
• “Slumdog Millionaire”
  

Adapted screenplay

• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, Screenplay by Eric Roth, Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
• “Doubt”, Written by John Patrick Shanley
• “Frost/Nixon”, Screenplay by Peter Morgan
• “The Reader”, Screenplay by David Hare
• “Slumdog Millionaire”, Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

Original screenplay

• “Frozen River”, Written by Courtney Hunt
• “Happy-Go-Lucky”, Written by Mike Leigh
• “In Bruges”, Written by Martin McDonagh
• “Milk”, Written by Dustin Lance Black
• “WALL-E”, Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

(The thing about Wall-E was that half the movie was in silence. It's not writing dialogue that's hard, it's the description of the scene and then being able to recreate that.)

I'll post again on Monday with food pictures and a results tally of how well I did with my guesses.