By Nick Baker

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

If there is one category where I think one nominee stands up head and shoulders above the rest, it's this one. Waltz plays a high ranking Nazi officer, renowned for his ability to hunt down Jewish fugitives in WWII occupied France. His performance is truly remarkable, bringing a sense of relaxed, sociopathic evil to his character. He does horrible, disgusting things to people and yet acts as if his job is just as normal as everyone else's. It's this ability to bring such an interesting and sinister personality to a character that makes Waltz such an amazing actor in this film and should earn him an Academy Award. Inglourious Basterds has earned some nods in other categories as well, but I would expect Waltz to be the only person taking an award home for this film.

Best Supporting Actress: Mo'nique - Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

This is another category where there is one nominee that is almost certain to win. Precious is the movie that's sneaking under everyone's radar. It doesn't have the big name credentials that the other nominees have and it isn't getting all the extra publicity smaller films like The Hurt Locker is. Precious shouldn't be overlooked though, with Mo'nique's performance easily being the most memorable part of it. As the unemployed abusive mother of an overweight 16-year-old girl living in the slums of Harlem, Mo'nique's performance is even more unsettling than Waltz's. It's an emotionally gripping film with Mo'nique leading the assault, because of this it's almost guaranteed she will walk away with this award.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart

While I would like to see Jeremy Renner's performance in The Hurt Locker get him the award in this category, all signs seem to be pointing toward Bridges. His performance as the troubled county singer has garnished international attention and earned him a Golden Globe award, a win that the entire audience gave him a standing ovation for. While Renner could still pull an upset and overtake Bridges, it's not very likely. I'm putting my money on Bridges and his deeply heartfelt and moving role. It's hard to argue with a standing ovation.

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side

The Blind Side was a very unlikely candidate for Best Picture, but Bullock's nomination for Best Actress was a guarantee. Bullock easily faces the steepest competition; namely Meryl Streep for Julie and Julia as well as Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel Push, but I'm still giving her the edge. Bullock, a veteran of the industry, has yet to receive her due in the Academy Awards and this year she finally gave a performance worthy of one. As the hard headed, yet caring, southern mom and housewife who takes in a homeless teen, her performance is by far the most memorable part of the film and is probably the main reason why it got it's best picture nomination. While I wouldn't be shocked if Streep or Sidibe walked away with this award, I believe Bullock is still the front-runner.

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

2010 marks the first year that the best picture category holds ten nominations, twice the number all the previous years held. All those extra nominations don't make the winner in this category any less clear though. There are three films that have a realistic chance at this: The Hurt Locker, Avatar, and to a lesser extent Inglourious Basterds. If any of the other films take home this award it would be a shocker that I'm sure very few would see coming. I believe that The Hurt Locker will, or at least should, win in this category. The film follows a military bomb squad in Iraq, a job that's anything but dull. It's a tense war film with plenty of drama and suspense, taking its plot ideas from a division of the army few people think about. The storyline, as well as the acting, are both phenomenal and make for an emotionally charged action film, something that you rarely see on this level in today's films. While Avatar could end up with the award due to its record-breaking box office numbers and amazing CGI, it's lack of nominations in screenplay and acting categories means that it had little going for it besides computer effects and ticket sales and I would expect a more all around well made movie, such as the Hurt Locker, to win here.

By Laura Uribe

* Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart")
* Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds")
* Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock ("The Blind Side")
* Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Mo'Nique ("Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire")
* Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: "Up"
* Achievement in Art Direction: "Avatar"
* Achievement in Cinematography: "Inglourious Basterds"
* Achievement in Costume Design: "The Young Victoria"
* Achievement in Directing: Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker") or Quentin Tarantino ("Inglourious Basterds")
* Best documentary feature: "The Cove"
* Achievement in Film Editing: "Inglourious Basterds"
* Achievement in Makeup: "The Young Victoria"
* Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original score): "Avatar" (Music by James Horner)
* Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original song): "The Weary Kind" from "Crazy Heart" (Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett)
* Best Motion Picture of the Year: Most likely the "The Hurt Locker" but "Inglourious Basterds" has a good chance too.
* Achievement in Sound Editing: "The Hurt Locker"
* Achievement in Sound Mixing: "The Hurt Locker"
* Achievement in Visual Effects: "Avatar"
* Adapted Screenplay: "Up In the Air" (Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)
* Original Screenplay: "Inglourious Basterds" (Written by Quentin Tarantino)

By Matt Erspamer

Best Picture

Will Win: Avatar. Highest grossing movie of all time, revolutionary special effects, James Cameron- though none of these factors qualify it in my book, the Academy went with Titanic, and it will go with this one to get a ratings boost.

Should Win: Up In the Air. Jason Reitman's film is a movie that perfectly captures and analyzes the point we are at in this country's history. With a pitch-perfect screenplay, cast, and production team, you can't go wrong.

Left Out: Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. Kids movie my ass, this movie deserved recognition. Not only does it speak the truth, something watered down in The Blind Side, it looks and sounds great thanks to revolutionary production design and some of the best voice work ever recorded.

Best Actor

Will Win: Jeff Bridges. He's been winning every major acting award at all the right ceremonies and has the underdog momentum that failed Rourke last year. However, Bridges doesn't have any clear competition, so the trophy is all his.

Should Win: Jeremy Renner. As a bomb diffuser in Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, Renner is responsible for at least part of the unnerving suspense. Watch him, lost and confused, not at war but in a super market back home, to really get the gravity of his performance.

Left Out: Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man. Giving one of the greatest performances ever in a Coen Brothers movie is a bold statement. Not here.

Best Actress

Will Win: Bullock. That it's said Meryl Streep has a chance is pushing it. Bullock has won more awards, and Streep never wins the big prize. Do either deserve to win? No, but Bullock is the least capable of the 5, making this the most disappointing category of the night.

Should Win: Carey Mulligan. She gave the best performance of 2009, never mind that it was her first as lead. That she doesn't have more momentum behind her speaks more to the box office standards of the Academy than anything.

Left Out: Zoe Saldana in Avatar. Yeah, you heard me. Her motion-captured performance ranks with that of Gollum's. Benjamin Button gets a nomination, but not one that requires the performer to move like a different species? Please.

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win: Christoph Waltz. Like Bridges, he's won all the important awards, and there's really no stopping him at this point.

Should Win: Waltz. Sometimes, they line up the way they should. As a Nazi layered with menace and a hidden agenda, he delivers Tarantino's dialogue in 4 languages with creepy precision.

Left Out: All of the top 5 are pretty great, but I would've liked to see Peter Sarsgaard nominated for An Education. He takes a role that could've been that of a creepy pedophile and makes it into something more mysterious, but still dark.

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win: Mo'Nique. As an abusive mom in Precious, there's no surer thing on Oscar night than an award for her.

Should Win: Mo'Nique. Sometimes a performance deserves all the attention it gets. Playing a monster who gives horrible light into her motives, this performance is one of those times.

Left Out: Marion Cotillard in Public Enemies. As the love interest of Johnny Depp's John Dillanger, Cotillard steals the spotlight in the scenes she's in, bringing a magnetism and feeling that gives the movie part of it's bruised soul.

Best Director

Will Win: It's hard to say whether it will be Bigelow or Cameron, but I think Kathryn will edge out her ex-husband and become the first female to ever win the award.

Should Win: Bigelow. The directing is what makes the locker hurt so much. The bruised souls and the unnerving suspense come together to create master-class in film making.

Left Out: Spike Jonze. He directs Where the Wild Things Are with such vibrant creative energy and vision that it's a shame nobody in the Academy seemed to notice. Also throw in Neil Blomkamp, who is responsible for the sleeper summer hit District 9.

Best Original Screenplay

Will Win: Tarantino. It's been awhile since Pulp Fiction, and this is one area where the Academy doesn't mind acknowledging him.

Should Win: The Coen Brothers. They craft a script in A Serious Man that is so brusingly pitch black and hilarious that it will make you feel guiltier for laughing than Bruno did.

Left Out: (500) Days of Summer. If there's one nomination this movie deserved, it was this one.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Win: Up In the Air. Reitman and Turner have written a script that is filled with humor and gravity, and this is the one area where this movie will be acknowledged.

Should Win: Though I have no problem with UITA winning, Nick Hornby's terrific adaptation of An Education is in my opinion superior.

Left Out: Again, Where the Wild Things Are. Who would have the audacity to adapt a 12-page children's novel that's mostly pictures? Jonze did, and he rocked it. For shame, Academy voters.

 

Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros. 

Please login to post your comments.