my favourite movie of all time has a first name, it's A-V-A-T-A-R

I love this time of year. Why?

It's OSCAR TIME!

The biggest night in movies and the film-geek's highlight of the year.  I also love this time of year because it makes it okay for me to be a cheeky film critic. SO! These are my Oscar predictions for tonight.

(Note: I'm only including predictions for the award categories that I care about. So. In your face, Mr. YouKnowWhoYouAre.)

Cinematography
“The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
DARK HORSE “The White Ribbon” Christian Berger



Visual Effects
“Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
DARK HORSE “District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken


Music (Original Score)
“Up” Michael Giacchino
DARK HORSE “Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer (because it's Hans Zimmer)


Writing (Original Screenplay)
SHOULD WIN “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
WILL WIN “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
DARK HORSE “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (because it's the Coens' best movie since Fargo, don'tchyaknow.)


Animated Feature Film
“Up” Pete Docter
DARK HORSE “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements


Actress in a Supporting Role
WILL WIN (boo) Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
COULD WIN Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
DARK HORSE Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air” (rooting for her.)


Actress in a Leading Role
WILL WIN Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
COULD WIN (boo, again) Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
COULD WIN Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”


Actor in a Supporting Role (I'm torn on this one. I love all of these actors, and I've especially developed an extra-soft spot for Christoph Waltz after watching his awkward-but-adorable acceptance speech at the SAG Awards.)
SHOULD WIN/YOU BETTER EFFING WIN Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds” (if only to see another awesome acceptance speech.)
COULD WIN Matt Damon in “Invictus”
COULD WIN Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station” (Actually haven't seen this film, but you can't expect anything less than an Oscar-worthy performance from Plummer.)
COULD WIN Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones” (although this is a strange role to win an award for.)
DARK HORSE/WOULD BE AWESOME IF HE WON BUT HE WON'T Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”


Actor in a Leading Role
WILL WIN Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
MIGHT WIN George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
DARK HORSE Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”


Directing
TOSS-UP “Avatar” James Cameron & “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
COULD WIN, BUT WON'T “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
MIGHT WIN, BUT BETTER NOT “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels


Best Picture
BETTER WIN “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
COULD WIN “The Blind Side” Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson, Producers
IF IT WEREN'T FOR AVATAR “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
MIGHT WIN “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro, Producers
BETTER NOT WIN “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
TIED FOR DARK HORSE “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers & “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer

images from http://oscars.go.com