OSCAR PICS 2009

Short and sweet here. I give my pick on top, then my "or" alternate in case of an upset. I stand by the first pick on just about everything, however, but at least I can say I sorta guessed if my top pick is wrong. Which it won't be. Because I rule.

BEST PICTURE

Slumdog Millionaire

or

Milk

BEST DIRECTOR

Danny Boyle

or

Gus Van Sant

BEST ACTOR

Sean Penn

or

Mickey Rourke

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Heath Ledger

or

ha...yeah, right...okay, Josh Brolin

BEST ACTRESS

Kate Winslet

or

Meryl Streep

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Penelope Cruz

or

Amy Adams

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Wall-E

or

um...not a chance...but Kung Fu Panda

ART DIRECTION

The Dark Knight

or

The Duchess

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Anthony Dodd Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire

or

Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

COSTUME DESIGN

Michael O'Connor, The Duchess

or

Catherine Martin, Australia

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Man on Wire

or

Trouble the Water

DOCUMENTARY SHORT (crap shoot)

The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306

or

Smile Pinki (simply because I like the title)

FILM EDITING

Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire

or

Lee Smith, The Dark Knight

FOREIGN LANGUAGE (tough call)

Waltz with Bashir

or

The Class

MAKEUP

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (unworthy, all digital)

or

Hellboy 2 (deserving, all practical)

MUSICAL SCORE

A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire

or

Danny Elfman, Milk

ORIGINAL SONG (the battle of two)

A.R. Rahman - Jai Ho, Slumdog Millionaire

or

A.R. Rahman and MIA - O Saya, Slumdog Millionaire

SHORT ANIMATED FILM

Presto

or

La Maison En Petits Cubes

SHORT LIVE ACTION FILM (crap shoot)

Spielzugland

or

Auf Der Strecke

SOUND EDITING

Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood, Wall-E

or

Richard King, The Dark Knight

SOUND MIXING

Lora Hirshberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick, The Dark Knight

or

Tom Meyers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt, Wall-E

VISUAL EFFECTS

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

or

The Dark Knight (sorry, Iron Man, you know I liked you better)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

or

John Patrick Shanley, Doubt

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Dustin Lance Black, Milk

or

Andrew Standton and Jim Reardon, Wall-E

And there you have it. We'll see who prevails between myself and Joe over at http://reassurance.blogspot.com/ , as we compete annually over the Globes, the Academy nominations, and the Oscars themselves. Joe took the Globes, I took the Academy nods, so this truly is a tight match. I'll likely be back Sunday night after the awards. Also, that best of 2008 post is going up tonight.

-M