OSCAR 2010: Talk About Change

Due last week's triple-announcement of changes, including a nixing of both the Original Song and Honorary Awards categories and the majorly controversial move to extend the number Best Picture nominees to ten, things are going down at AMPAS that most people don't like. For the record, I'm not a big fan of the nixing of any categories, but I am one of the few proponents of the Best Pic extension. Any haughty judgments that people have been awarding the move are solely based on circular logic: the reasons against it are the reasons it should exist, or so it appears. I think the Academy is pushing the limits of their creativity in a way that could resuscitate interest in the proceedings (overlong telecast notwithstanding). It opens the door up for quite a few movies to be noticed from now on and I hope they keep this up (unless it turns out disastrous).

Having said that, I figured it would be time for a new Predix article. Note that these are not original nominee predictions. I get these from the fellas over at InContention. But then no predictions are truly original, as the folks at IC get theirs from Awards Daily for the most part and I'm sure Awards Daily gets theirs from somewhere else. It's not plagiaristic to copy off something that's not an original in the first place, is it? Plus, I'm not that literate in the art of predicting like those before me, so I take what makes sense from others' perspectives and make them my own. They are conveniently original.

Here goes, down a different road than before:

Best Picture:

Avatar
Bright Star
Funny People
The Informant
Invictus
Precious
Public Enemies
A Serious Man
Shutter Island
Up

Best Director:
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Mira Nair, Amelia

Best Actor:


Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
Johnny Depp, Public Enemies
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Peter Sarsgaard, An Education
Ben Wishaw, Bright Star

Best Actress:

Shohreh Aghdashloo, The Stoning of Soraya M.
Abbie Cornish, Bright Star
Penelope Cruz, Broken Embraces
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Audrey Tautou, Coco Avant Chanel

Best Supporting Actor:

Matt Damon, Invictus
Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
Tobey Maguire, Brothers
Alfred Molina, An Education
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress:

Kathy Bates, Cheri
Marion Cotillard, Public Enemies
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Leslie Mann, Funny People
Mo'nique, Precious

Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Informant
Nine
Precious
Shutter Island
Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay:

The Boat That Rocked
Bright Star
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man

Best Animated Feature Film:

Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Up

Best Art Direction:

Amelia
Bright Star
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Nine
Where the Wild Things Are

Best Cinematography:

Bright Star
Green Zone
The Hurt Locker
Public Enemies
The Road

Best Costume Design:

Bright Star
Cheri
Public Enemies

Best Film Editing:

Bright Star
Green Zone
Invictus
The Lovely Bones
Public Enemies

Best Makeup:

Bright Star
Star Trek
Watchmen

Best Original Score:

Avatar
Broken Embraces
The Lovely Bones
The Road
Up

Best Sound Editing:

Green Zone
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Terminator Salvation
Up

Best Sound Mixing:

Green Zone
The Hurt Locker
Public Enemies
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Visual Effects:

Avatar
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen