My Oscar predictions, or I miss Alex Fung.

In no particular order:

Visual Effects- POTC: Dead Man's Chest
Sound Editing- POTC: Dead Man's Chest
Sound Mixing- Dreamgirls

The pirate film may take all 3 of these, but I think that, having had the good taste not to nominate Dreamgirls for best picture, the academy will make it up to them by giving them Sound Mixing.

Makeup- Pan's Labyrinth
Art Direction- Pan's Labyrinth
Costume Design- The Curse Of The Golden Flower

I don't really know anyone who liked Marie Antoinette, and the other costume nominees don't have much of a chance, so really, The Curse wins almost by default.

Song- "Listen" - Dreamgirls
Score- Pan's Labyrinth

These are total guesses.

Animated Short- Lifted
Live Action Short- Éramos Pocos
Documentary Short- The Blood Of Yingzhou District

There is a lot of wishful thinking in my picks this year, and it starts in the Live Action Short category. I picked Documentary Short just based on the title.

Adapted Screenplay- The Departed
Original Screenplay- Little Miss Sunshine

Or maybe Borat and Pan's Labyrinth. It is easy to narrow down these and each of the rest of the categories to two nominees.

Supporting Actor- Alan Arkin
Supporting Actress- Jennifer Hudson

My theory is that the voters have been inundated with ads for Norbit, and they will say to themselves, "We're voting for THIS guy?????" and then change their votes. Sadly, neither of those performances were any good. If Jennifer Hudson doesn't win, I would guess that Abigail Breslin will take it. It wouldn't make any sense, but neither did her nomination.

Editing- The Departed
Cinematography- Children Of Men

If Babel wins editing, then it will also win best picture, and film lovers everywhere will cry. The nominees for cinematography are really depressing... All 5 movies were of no interest to me at all, although The Prestige turned out to be pretty good.

Animated- Cars
Documentary- An Inconvenient Truth
Foreign Language- Pan's Labyrinth

Cars is more wishful thinking. I'm just completely sick of penguins. Deliver Us From Evil has a very good chance, as it is anti-Catholic. The Lives Of Others would be the other choice for Foreign Film, but there have been some odd choices in that category in the past.

Actor- Forest Whitaker
Actress- Helen Mirren

Obviously, the other choice for Actor would be Peter O'Toole. If Helen Mirren gets disqualified for steroid use or something, then my surprise pick for actress would be Kate Winslet. Why? 1) She's the only viable young candidate. 2) She has been nominated many times before without winning. 3) I just like her more than the others. Wishful thinking, remember.

Director- Martin Scorsese
Picture- The Departed

Part of me would like to see Clint Eastwood win again, just so I can listen to everyone's OUTRAGE at how horrible the Oscars are. Best Picture is a mess. Only The Queen has no chance of winning. Both these categories are wishful thinking for me again, as after Crash last year, I have no confidence in the academy picking the film that is clearly head and shoulders above the other nominees.

Wish me luck!