Oscar predictions

With the announcement of the Academy Award nominations less than 24 hours away it is time for Tim and I to reveal our Oscar predictions.

Stephanie:

Best Picture: Since the top five are predictable at this point, I will stick with what I think the other five will be. "Up," "Star Trek," "District 9," "An Education" and my dark horse "The Hangover."

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Jeremy Renner and Morgan Freeman. No surprises here Jeff Bridges has been on a roll.

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep ("Julie & Julia"), Gabourey Sidibe, Helen Mirren and Carey Mulligan. Again no surprises as the acting categories have been the same at most of the big awards.

Best Director: James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow, Jason Reitman, Quentin Tarantino and another dark horse Neil Blomkamp. While Lee Daniels has done his best work on "Precious" his previously lackluster resume will be a disadvantage.

Supporting Actor/Actress: While Tim thinks there could be some surprises, I think MoNique and Christoph Waltz have these categories locked up, so it doesn't matter who else is nominated.

Surprises: There are a few underdogs who can sneak in including Emily Blunt for Best Actress which would bump Gabby Sidibe out of the running. I'm also hoping to see Sigourney Weaver in the Supporting Actress category.


Finally, after last year's Best Original Song debacle I hope the Academy nominates some really worthy candidates so we can enjoy good musical performances. Likely choices include, "I See You" from "Avatar," anything from "The Princess and the Frog" and "I Want to Come Home" from "Everybody's Fine" performed by Paul McCartney. You know the Academy can't pass that up.

So now all that's left to do is to wait and see how completely wrong I am.

Tim here. Well, below this.

Leave it to Stephanie to take the words right out of my mouth. Her choices in acting directly mirror mine.

And how I would love to Blomkamp to be nominated. No offense to Daniels, but no one else could have directed "District 9."

I also agree with her that the top five are already locked in: "Avatar," "Up in the Air," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglorious Basterds" and "Precious." And I would love, love for her other nominees to get the nod tomorrow morning. But, I am more of a realist (today). "District 9" and "Star Trek" have great shots, but "The Hangover" doesn't. Look for a film like "A Serious Man" or "A Single Man" to get that spot.

Surprises (I would love to see): Sharlto Copley for Best Actor (For being his first movie? Holy crap.) Not only was it an amazing performance, but talk about character range. At first you were laughing at the character, then hating him, then feeling compassion for him and then rooting for him. And then take into consideration that a lot of his performance was improved.

Anthony Mackie for Supporting for "The Hurt Locker." Another out of nowhere performance. Renner might get the spotlight in the film, but Mackie deserves some of it. Too bad it's an unwinable year in Supporting Actor.