OK so I have to do it… here are my OSCAR PICKS!!!

Best Picture – Slumdog Millionaire

Best Male Actor – Sean Penn for Milk

Best Female Actor – Kate Winslet for The Reader (probably my favorite actor in Hollywood at the moment)

Best Supporting Male – Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight

Best Supporting Female – Viola Davis for Doubt (some internal debate about this one… I like Marisa Tomei as well, and Viola’s part was, oh, only 5 minutes long.. but damn if she didn’t knock it out of the park)

Best Director – Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Screenplay – Dustin Lance Black for Milk (though I quite liked Happy-Go-Lucky)

Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Published or Produced – Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire (or Doubt, but I think Slumdog will sweep)

Best Cinematography – Anthony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Editing – Chris Dickens for Slumdog

Best Art Direction – Donald Graham Burt and Victor J. Zolfo for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Costume Design – Michael O’Connor for The Duchess (I haven’t seen Australia however)

Best Makeup – Mike Elizalde and Thomas Floutz for Hellboy II: The Golden Army (if it doesn’t win, it deserves to)

Best Original Score – A.R. Rahman for Slumdog

Best Original Song – A.R. Rahman for Slumdog

Best Sound – Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt for Wall-E

Best Sound Editing (wait, these are different?) – Richard King for The Dark Knight

Best Visual Effects – I think Benjamin Button will win but to see Iron Man get it would be cool

Best Animated Feature – Andrew Stanton for Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film – Vals Im Bashir (shot in the dark—I unfortunately haven’t seen any of these)

Best Documentary – James Marsh and Simon Chinn for Man on Wire because it’s about the Twin Towers

…And I haven’t seen any of the shorts, so I’d feel bad betting on them.

I’ll post later to either boast or concede. 

Enjoy watching all the beautiful people!

Peace.