Awards Special: The Oscar Predictions

Over the years the Academy Awards have become a pop culture event. From the 'Top Oscar Moments' countdowns in the days prior, to the red carpet event right before the show, one would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't heard of The Oscars. Although the categories run deep and include so many diff rent technical aspects that all should be acknowledged and celebrated, for the sake of time we will just look at the 'top' categories: Best Picture, Director, Actor , Supporting Actor, and Actress.

Best Picture
Unlike years past where months before the awards the Best Picture can be predicted with ease, this year has proven to be more challenging. With the addition of five more movies, the the only thing easy to predict is the five films that are the front runners. These films are Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Up In The Air and Precious: Based on The Novel "Push" By Sapphire.

The Winner: Precious: Based on The Novel "Push" By Sapphire

Why?: Any of the films sound like they could be read off as Best Picture but Precious will get the nod. Avatar has James Cameron at the helm who won in 1997 for Titanic. The Academy hates repeats. Basterds seems too violent for voters and Up In The Air has just lost so much steam over the month while Precious is the PC choice, The Hurt Locker has everything it should and is supposed to have to win, except it's about Iraq. Precious has the steam, the right topic and to the voters it will be the best film. Also It would be the first time a film with a largely African American cast and production crew has won Best Picture.

Best Director
The Nominees: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, Quentin Tarantino for inglourious Basterds, James Cameron for Avatar, Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on The Novel "Push" By Sapphire, and Jason Reitman for up In the Air.

The Winner: Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker

Why?: Never has a female director won this award and this year will end that streak. Her film may not win the Best Picture prize because of its semi-controversial topic, Bigelow will surely win the award for directing it. It's almost like winning second place to win Best Director and not Best Picture, but Bigelow will do it. It seems the perfect scenario where everyone gets what they want (much like 2005 where the voters used this formula in the wrong case) where the voters honor the PC film with the Best Picture but still honor the true Best Picture through it's director(Crash won in 2005 while Ang Lee won Best Director for Brokeback Mountain). The Academy will feel they are righting a wrong by doing this and we the viewers will have to settle yet again. This time around though both films are deserved of the award.

Best Actor
The Nominees: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, George Clooney for Up In The Air, Colin Firth for A Single Man, Morgan Freeman for Invictus and Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker.

The Winner: Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart

Why?: I see this as The Wrestler part two. Last year Mickey Rourke was the feel good story of the Oscars winning the statue after resurrecting his long dead and destroyed career playing a wrestler who was trying to survive after his career had been long dead and destroyed. This is basically the same story expect substitute the wrestling ring for a bar and past his prime but still holding on wrestler Mickey Rourke with past his prime but still holding on country singer Jeff Bridges. But this goes to show that even if a role is redundant, if the right actor is cast he can make it into something magical to watch.

Best Supporting Actor
The Nominees: Matt Damon for Invictus, Woody Harelson for The Messenger, Christopher Plummer for The Last Station, Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones, and Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds.

The Winner: Cristoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Why?: Much like last years awards, you mine as well hand this one out now. It's a shame that such good performances won't be awarded but there is no doubt the best is winning. in 2007 it was Javier Bardem who was a lock to win playing a sinister villain. in 2008 it was Heath Ledger who was a lock to win for playing a sinister villain and this year Christoph Waltz is a lock to win as a charmingly sinister villain. I guess the hint is play a sinister villain really really good and you too might just win an Oscar, that is if your as good as Bardem, Ledger and Waltz were.

Best Actress
The Nominees: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side, Hellen Mirren for The Last Station, Carey Mulligan for An Education, Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on The Novel "Push" By Sapphire, and Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia.

The Winner: Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side

Why?: This will be the only award handed out to The Blind Side which did exactly that by actually getting nominations. But if the film was guaranteed one nod, it would deservedly go to Sandra Bullock who made everyone actually forget she was Sandra Bullock for two hours. That is worth an award any day.

Best Supporting Actress
The Nominees: Penelope Cruz for Nine, Vera Farmiga for up In The Air, Anna Kendrick for up In the Air, Maggie Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart, and Mo'Nique for Precious.

The Winner: Mo'Nique - Precious

Why?: Again, the academy likes it's villains and unlike Christoph Waltz's charming villain, Mo'Nique plays quite the opposite. She is cruel, harsh and a downright disgusting human being. Throughout the whole movie you loathe her very existence, yet at the end she makes you feel pity for her. It takes an extraordinary actress to pull this off, far more the actress then Mo'Nique was thought to be(See Phat Girlz) but she did which again goes to show that if you cast the right actress in the right role, you will have yourself something magical.