There Will Be Oscars!

So lets get the obvious bit out up front. Yes, I'm a big Coen Brothers fan and I want them to win big this Sunday. If I had one bone to pick is that having seen No Country For Old Men (spoiler alert!) you come to slowly realise that this a morality tale about Tommy Lee-Jones' character, Ed Bell, and that given his performance he should have been up for Best Actor. I still think he'd have lost to Daniel Day-Lewis who seems a shoe in for his second statue but it would have been nice to have seen his outstanding performance recognised.

Sticking my neck out I'd like to see Ellen Page win Best Actress for Juno. I've yet to meet a 16 year old that quite talks like that but it is a magical performance and I think might just snag Original Screenplay at the same time. Good to see George Clooney up there again - his day will come one year - but co star Tilda Swinton might be getting hugs from George instead. As for Phillip Seymour Hoffman, well it is February and that time of year...

So here are my predictions for this Sunday's Oscar ceremony:

Best Picture
(Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood)
Winner: No Country For Old Men

Best Director
(Paul Thomas Anderson, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Tony Gilroy, Jason Reitman, Julian Schnabel)
Winner: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Best Actor
(George Clooney for Michael Clayton, Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood, Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah & Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises)
Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis

Best Actress
(Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Julie Christie for Away from Her, Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose, Laura Linney for The Savages & Ellen Page for Juno)
Winner: Marion Cotillard

Best Supporting Actor
(Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men, Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson's War, Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild & Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton)
Winner: Javier Bardem

Best Supporting Actress
(Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There, Ruby Dee for American Gangster, Saoirse Ronan for Atonement, Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone & Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton)
Winner: Tilda Swinton

Best Original Screenplay
(Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille & The Savages)
Winner: Juno

Best Adapted Screenplay
(Atonement, Away from Her, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, No Country for Old Men & There Will Be Blood)
Winner: No Country For Old Men

Best Animated Feature
(Persepolis, Ratatouille, Surf's Up)
Winner: Ratatouille

So there you go. Who ever ends up taking Uncle Oscar home will have certainly deserved it as the competition this year is fantastically high. Once I've licked my wounds I'll report back on how my predictions fared later on next week.