78th Annual Academy Awards

Nominations are out today and I think I'm going to do both a prediction and my personal choice:

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) - Choice and Prediction. He deserves it. Trust me.
Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow)
Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain)
Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line)
David Strathairn (Good Night, And Good Luck)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
George Clooney (Syriana) - Prediction. He did a lot of publicity for this movie and the Oscars are political.
Matt Dillon (Crash) - Choice. He was outstanding. I am still disgusted by his character thinking about it. Simply amazing.
Paul Giamatti (Cinderelle Man)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain)
William Hurt (A History of Violence)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents) - Choice. Judi Dench can never do wrong in my eyes.
Felicity Huffman (Transamerica)
Keira Knightley (Pride & Predjudice)
Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) - Prediction. This one seems pretty clear. A lock.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adam (Junebug)
Catherine Keener (Capote) - Choice. Her and Phillip were excellent together.
Frances McDormand (North Country)
Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener)
Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) - Prediction. Most people really liked her.

ANIMATED FEATURE
Howl's Moving Castle
Corpse Bride
Wallace & Gromit - Choice and Prediction. The sexual innuendo makes it my choice and everything else makes it the best animated feature this year. Corpse Bride, while I love Timmy B., was the Nightmare Before Christmas but worse. Howl's was a defenite decline in comparision to other work of the same authors.

ART DIRECTION
Good Night, And Good Luck
Harry Potter - Choice. I'm sorry I really have always liked the art direction in these movies.
King Kong
Memoirs of a Geisha - This is more of a hope that anything else. I just don't think Harry Potter can win and the otheres weren't memorable for me.
Pride & Predjudice

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Batman Begins
Brokeback Mountain - Prediction. Only because my personal choice has never been picked in this category ever. And I feel like Brokeback is going to get a lot of awards or people will be out for blood.
Good Night, and Good Luck
Memoirs of a Geisha - Choice. Did you see it?
The New World

COSTUME DESIGN
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Choice. I'm very sad it didn't get Art Direction.
Memoirs of a Geisha - Prediction. Movies like this always get costume design.
Mrs. Henderson Presents
Pride & Predjudice
Walk the Line

DIRECTING
Brokeback Mountain - Prediction without a doubt. Publicity says it all.
Capote
Crash - Choice. Hands down. I'm not saying Brokeback wasn't really good. Both films were extremely well executed, but...this movie did it for me. The ensemble was excellent and I always give that credit to the director.
Good Night, and Good Luck
Munich

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Darwin's Nightmare
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Murderball
Street Fight
March of the Penguins - Choice and Prediction. Otherwise I'm out for blood. Though I didn't see Enron and I have a feeling that's in the running.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT - Haven't seen enough of them.
The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang
God Sleeps in Rwanda
The Mushroom Club
A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin

FILM EDITING
The Constant Gardener
Crash - Prediction and Choice. I see very few flaws in this movie and I am very, very picky about editing.
Munich
Walk the Line

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - Can't comment...not a good year for me and foreign films, I guess.
Don't Tell
Joyeux Noel
Paradise Now
Sophie Scholl - The Final Days
Tsotsi

MAKEUP
The Chronicles of Narnia - Prediction and choice. Pretty much the only thing that movie had going for it.
Cinderella Man
Star Wars: Episode III

MUSIC (SCORE)
Brokeback Mountain - Prediction. People always go for that type of music.
The Constant Gardener
Memoirs of a Geisha - Choice. I'm a John Williams fan through and through, but I didn't like Munich's score at all.
Munich
Pride & Predjudice

MUSIC (SONG) - I can't do this category. I never know what songs they're talking about.
"In the Deep" (Crash)
"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" (Hustle & Flow)
"Travelin' Thru" (Transamerica)

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Badgered
The Moon and the Son - Choice and Prediction. I've seen all of these films, but I saw this one at NYU over the summer and met the creator. He gave a lecture. It was the most intense animated short I've ever seen. And I consider animated shorts my favorite category.
The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
9
One Man Blind

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION) - No comment. I don't even know how to see short live action films.
The Runaway
Cashback
The Last Farm
Our Time is Up
Six Shooter

SOUND EDITING
King Kong
Memoirs of a Geisha
War of the Worlds - Choice. I actually didn't hate this movie and the sound editing was pretty good.

SOUND MIXING
The Chronichles of Narnia
King Kong - Prediction and choice. Another of the movies fine features...and these categories are rarely political anyway.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Walk the Line
War of the Worlds

VISUAL EFFECTS
The Chronichles of Narnia
King Kong - Prediction and choice. Narnia is a close second, but not that close either. I don't feel like an explanation is necessary if you saw it. King Kong looked good. On a side note, bad visual effects ruin movies for me.
War of the Worlds

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
Brokeback Mountain - Prediction. Publicity again. Politcs, god damnit.
Capote - Choice. I loved the wit and the structure of this movie. Movies like this are sually too slow for me, but the pacing of the events was perfect. The characters, although I supsect they were heavily added to by the great acting, were extremely interesting as well.
The Constant Gardener
A History of Violence
Munich

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Crash - Prediction and Choice. Even if you don't agree about the execution..the source material was damn good. Some of the best lines and sequences I've ever seen.
Good Night, and Good Luck
Match Point
The Squid and the Whale
Syriana

BEST PICTURE
Brokeback Mountain - Prediction. Based on Golden Globes and the ridiculous amount of buzz regarding this film. It'd be a nice upset for it to lose, in my opinion though. I think any other year I would've said Capote, but this was just a tough year competition-wise.
Capote
Crash - I bet you saw this one coming. I really think this movie will be hailed as one of the finest films of at least the last couple of years in the not-too-distant future. And really wish Brokeback hadn't come out to steal away Crash's due through pure controversy.
Good Night, and Good Luck
Munich