“And the Oscar goes to...”

John Mullany

Best Picture

Will Win: Avatar
Should Win: The Hurt Locker
Should Have Been Nominated: Invictus

Hurt Locker is the best movie of the year but the commercial success of Avatar will probably sway voters and Invictus had its nomination stolen by “The Blindside.”

Best Director

Will Win: Kathryn Bigelow
Should Win: Kathryn Bigelow
Should Have Been Nominated: Clint Eastwood

Bigelow is a lock considering her excellent work with a limited budget and Eastwood is a master story teller.

Best Actor

Will Win: Jeff Bridges
Should Win: Jeremy Renner
Should Have Been Nominated: Viggo Mortensen

Bridges is a constant contender but Viggo had the best work of his career in “The Road.” Renner gave best performance out of current nominees.

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win: Christoph Waltz
Should Win: Christoph Waltz
Should Have Been Nominated: Kodi Smit-McPhee

Waltz was the best villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker but young Kodi should be recognized for his work in “The Road.”

Best Actress

Will Win: Sandra Bullock
Should Win: Sandra Bullock
Should Have Been Nominated: none

Bullock delivered the best performance of her career and all of the nominees were the best of the best.

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win: Mo’Nique
Should Win: Melanie Laurent
Should Have Been Nominated: Melanie Laurent

While Mo’Nique has received universal praise Laurent mastered several languages and was the second stand out star of “Inglourious Basterds.”

Best Original Screenplay

Will Win: Inglorious Basterds
Should Win: Inglorious Basterds
Should Have Been Nominated: Star Trek

Tarantino should win for his WWII epic but Orci and Kurtzman's script resurrected the “Star Trek” franchise for a new generation to enjoy.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Win: Up in the Air
Should Win: District 9
Should Have Been Nominated: The Road

While “Up in the Air” is more relevent these days the scifi adventure set in South Africa was highly creative. Also “The Road” was one of the best stories told in any film this year.

Best Cinematography

Will Win: Avatar
Should Win: The Hurt Locker
Should Have Been Nominated: Public Enemies

“Hurt Locker” has great camera angles and Michael Mann's latest crime thriller was last summer’s stand out film in regards to how it was shot.

Best Original Score

Will Win: Crazy Heart
Should Win: Crazy Heart
Should Have Been Nominated: Avatar

“The Weary Kind” is a great song and appropriate for the film's content but the theme for “Avatar” should have at least been considered.

Will Jacobson

Best Picture

Will Win: The Hurt Locker
Should Win: The Hurt Locker
Should Have Been Nominated: Funny People

“Funny People” is an amazing film, that happens to also have poop jokes, once again proving comedy can’t win at the Oscars. It's a better film than “District 9” at the least.

Best Director

Will Win: Kathryn Bigelow
Should Win: Kathryn Bigelow
Should Have Been Nominated: Joe and Ethan Coen

The Cameron vs. Bigelow smackdown is not even a contest. Cameron invented some amazing new technical ways to make a great film, Bigelow just went ahead and made a great film.

Best Actor

Will Win: Jeff Bridges
Should Win: Jeremy Renner
Should Have Been Nominated: Michael Stuhlbarg

Bridges is getting the sort of “Oops you've never got an Oscar before” award, but really Renner shocked everyone by coming out of nowhere with the performance of the year.

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win: Christoph Waltz
Should Win: Christoph Waltz
Should Have Been Nominated: Anthony Mackie

Not even a contest here. Waltz's charming but evil “Jew hunter” was the most compelling charater of the year and he nailed the performance.

Best Actress

Will Win: Sandra Bullock
Should Win: Carey Mulligan
Should Have Been Nominated: Diane Kruger

Bullock may have been great, but it was a two-bit character in a two-bit film. And don't forget, she is also up for a Razzie for “Worst Actress” for “All About Steve.”

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win: Mo'Nique
Should Win: Vera Farmiga
Should Have Been Nominated: Anna Chlumsky

“In The Loop” is the most underrated film of the year in my opinion, and I think Chlumsky was the best part of it.

Best Original Screenplay

Will Win: The Hurt Locker
Should Win: Inglorious Basterds
Should Have Been Nominated: (500) Days of Summer

“Basterds” was so over the top and inventive, how can it not win? And “(500) Days” was also quite inventive, making the romance genre watchable again.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Win: Up in the Air
Should Win: In the Loop
Should Have Been Nominated: Public Enemies

The adaptation of Bryan Burrough’s non-fiction book was a perfect blend of fact and hyped-up action, a “criminally” overlooked gem (pun intended).

Best Cinematography

Will Win: Avatar
Should Win: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Should Have Been Nominated: Public Enemies

I know, shocking coming from me, but the cinematography in the new “Potter” blew me away. That scene when The Burrow gets burned and they run through the tall grass? Amazingly shot.

Best Original Score

Will Win: Up
Should Win: Up
Should Have Been Nominated: Where the Wild Things Are

“Up” should win for the music in the first ten minutes alone, but I think Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's haunting and experimental score for “Wild Things” was really overlooked.

Frank McDevitt

Best Picture

Will Win: Avatar
Should Win: The Hurt Locker
Should Have Been Nominated: Where the Wild Things Are

Spike Jonze’s “Where The Wild Things Are” was controversial and quite divisive. I can’t remember a film that so powerfully captured the painful, terrifying parts of childhood that most children’s movies gloss over.

Best Director

Will Win: Kathryn Bigelow
Should Win: Kathryn Bieglow
Should Have Been Nominated: Spike Jonze

This year, the race comes down to two ex-spouses who directed some wildly different war films.

Best Actor

Will Win: Jeff Bridges
Should Win: Jeff Bridges
Should Have Been Nominated: Nicholas Cage

Bridges is a natural. With a lot of actors, you can see the wheels turning, even in their best performances. Not so with Jeff Bridges.

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win: Christoph Waltz
Should Win: Christoph Waltz
Should Have Been Nominated: Jason Schwartzman & James Gandolfini

Christoph Waltz’s performance was magnetic and fresh: we’ve seen Nazi’s so many times before in cinema, and yet he brings something entirely new to the role.

Best Actress

Will Win: Sandra Bullock
Should Win: None
Should Have Been Nominated: Sasha Grey

I can’t think of a female performance from the past year that was as risky, as honest, and as fascinating as Ms. Grey’s. 

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win: Mo'Nique
Should Win: Vera Farmiga
Should Have Been Nominated: Catherine O'Hara

O’Hara was brilliantly funny and sassy as the wild thing named Judith.

Best Original Screenplay

Will Win: Inglorious Basterds
Should Win: Inglorious Basterds
Should Have Been Nominated: The Messenger

Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon’s “The Messenger,” an incredibly well written picture about two soldiers who do the job that no one on the planet wants to do: they give notice to the families of fallen soldiers. 

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Win: Up in the Air
Should Win: Up in the Air
Should Have Been Nominated: Where the Wild Things Are

“Up In The Air” was the kind of screwball romantic dramedy that Hollywood doesn’t make anymore but totally should.

Best Cinematography

Will Win: Avatar
Should Win: Inglorious Basterds
Should Have Been Nominated: Where the Wild Things Are

“Hurt Locker” has great camera angles and Michael Mann's latest crime thriller was last summer's stand out film in regards to how it was shot.

Best Original Score

Will Win: Avatar
Should Win: Avatar
Should Have Been Nominated: None

The score, as I remember was suitably stirring and dramatic, epic and sweeping. That’s the kind of score the Academy seems to have gone for lately.

The fans' choices

Best Picture: Tie, Avatar and The Hurt Locker (38% each)

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Avatar (72%)

Best Lead Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart (61%)

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds (66%)

Best Lead Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blindside (63%)

Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious (81%)

Best Animated: UP (90%)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up In the Air  (52%)

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds (81%)

Best Special Effects: Avatar (92%)

Best Original Song: "The Weary Kind" by Ryan Bingham and T. Bone Burnett, Crazy Heart (75%)