It's a wonderful night for Oscar...

The Academy Awards are just hours away and I'm excited. I know most people really don't care who got nominated, let alone who wins, but for me, it's the movie event of the year. Man, I love seeing the fashions, the frenzy, and the fake "I'm so glad she won" faces. Brilliant stuff.


I've been on an Oscar movie-watching frenzy this week. So far I've seen:

Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Reader
Frost/Nixon Changeling
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

and I have, of course, already seen a few of the older, slightly-nominated films like:

The Dark Knight
Wall-E
Tropic Thunder
Burn After Reading

I think that covers most of the big nominees, except maybe The Wrestler, which I just do not feel like seeing (I can't stand wrestling as a sport...it really makes me pissed off and angry, so watching a whole movie about it...? I don't know if I want to do that). I also haven't been able to get hold of Milk yet, but I'm hoping to get it by tonight.

So here are my picks for tonight's winners:


BEST PICTURE
Will win: Slumdog Millionaire
My Pick: Slumdog Millionaire


Since I've seen four out of five nominees, this is the order I think they go in: Slumdog, Frost/Nixon, Benjamin Button, The Reader. However, Frost/Nixon, as good as it was, just really isn't up to Best Picture calibre, so it just has to be Slumdog. Although, if it were me, I would have dropped The Reader from this list and replaced it with Doubt, Changeling, Wall-E or The Dark Knight. Seriously, I don't get the love for The Reader. It's dull (except for about fifteen awesome minutes in the middle) and completely unbelievable (not the plot, the characters). One of the things I hate most in films or books or plays is when characters do and say things that are completely unfounded, that make no sense, and that no real person would ever do or say. The Reader is full of this sort of thing, resulting in its viewing being punctuated by exclamations of, "Oh, come ON!" and "What the heck is she doing?" from Mr Ruby Slippers and myself.

BEST DIRECTOR:
Will win: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
My Pick: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire

No contest here. The nominees are the same for best picture and directing, and the Slumdog love will carry Mr Boyle through here too.

BEST ACTRESS
Will win: Kate Winslet, The Reader
My Pick: Meryl Streep, Doubt


Let me just say this upfront: I adore Kate Winslet. I think she's talented, beautiful and just wonderful. I don't, however, think she deserves the first win of her career to be for a mess of a film like The Reader. Where, by the way, she's in a supporting role, which every other film award committee except the Oscars realised. It was a bad, bad call on their part, because if they'd kept her in the right category she would have been nominated for Revolutionary Road as well, doubling her chances of winning. Fools, I tell you, fools!

Kate will be nominated again for something worthy of an Oscar. Let's hold off until then and give this one to the constantly fabulous, exceptionally talented Meryl Streep, who hasn't won for twenty-six years, for crying out loud, and who doesn't have nearly enough Oscars to justify the fact that she is our greatest living actress. And she's phenomenal in Doubt. I was afraid of her.

BEST ACTOR:
Will win: Mickey Rourke
My Pick: Unsure


I haven't seen the Wrestler, so I can't comment on whether Rourke should win or not. But he's won almost everything else, and Hollywood loves a comeback movie. If it isn't him, it's Sean Penn.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Will win: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
My Pick: Amy Adams, Doubt


I don't really get what's so great about Penelope, to be honest. But I love Amy Adams to bits! Although this one is so wide open, it could easily go to Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) or even Viola Davis for her short but memorable performance in Doubt. Sorry, Taraji, you're out of this one entirely.

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Will win: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
My Pick: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight


At least, I think it's my pick. I have a hard timer deciding if I want him to win because of all the sympathy, or if he's actually the best. Would he even have been nominated if he hadn't died? I have to say, if it wasn't for that, I would rather see Robert Downey Jr take it for his hilarious role in Tropic Thunder, if only because it's sooooo un-PC.

ANIMATED FEATURE
Will win: Walle-E
My Pick: Wall-E

Who in their right minds would vote for anything else, I don't know.


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire
My Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

Although they left out half the book and added bits of their own (nefarious creatures), it's still a great adaptation and the best of the bunch.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Will win: Wall-E
My Pick: Wall-E

They have to show the Wall-E love somewhere, and hopefully this'll be it.

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Will Win:Slumdog Millionaire
My Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

Yep, it's going to sweep.


EDITING:
Will Win: Slumdog Millionaire
My Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

Fast paced, cutting back and forth between past and present...yep, I'm okay with this one.

ART DIRECTION:
Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
My Pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Slumdog isn't nominated here, so it's anybody's guess. The Duchess could take it for opulence, Changeling could take it for its dark, depression-era style, or The Dark Knight could take it for its awesome gothicness. Wiiiide open.

COSTUME DESIGN
Will Win:The Duchess
My Pick: The Duchess

I haven't seen it, but it seems to be the obvious one...most of the other nominees are fairly normal in the clothing department.

MAKE-UP
Will Win:The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
My Pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Although considering half the make-up was special effects....I'm not sure.

ORIGINAL SCORE
Will win: Slumdog Millionaire
My Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

They love it, it's going to win.

ORIGINAL SONG
Will Win: Jai Ho, Slumdog Millionaire
My Pick: Down to Earth, Wall-E

I just love Wall-E, and I'm not really a fan of the Bollywood music. But it's going to win anyway. And no, I don't care that Bruce Springsteen wasn't nominated. I've never got what was so great about him, to be honest. Sorry! Maybe you need to be American to get it?

SOUND
Will Win: Wall-E

I have no idea about these categories, I just have to fill them in on my Oscar ballot!

SOUND EDITING:
Will Win: The Dark Knight

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Will Win: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button


I'm slipping the documentary and foreign language categories because I haven't a clue.

We'll see tomorrow how I did...