And, with 3 hours to go ... here's how I'd vote if I were a member of the Academy .... (not who I think will win).
I copied the format from Alex, and I left his "ranking" of my picks ... just 'cause.
Best Picture
4.
The Queen
and I
also put Babel at 27 or lower
Best Actor
1. Peter O'Toole -
Venus
(Forest Whitaker and Ryan Gosling unseen)
Best Actress
1. Kate Winslet -
Little Children
an upset (in my own mind even) over Helen Mirren
(Judy Dench and Penelope Cruise unseen)
Best Supporting Actor
1. Jackie Earle Haley -
Little Children
Best Supporting Actress
1. Jennifer Hudson -
Dreamgirls
Best Director
1. Paul Greengrass -
United 93
Best Original Screenplay
2. Guillermo del Toro -
Pan's Labyrinth
Best Adapted Screenplay
1. Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fregus, Hawk Ostby -
Children of Men
Best Cinematography
1. Emmanuel Lubeski -
Children of Men
(unseen -
The Prestige)
Best Art Direction
Pan's Labyrinth - Eugenio Caballero
- what's being evaluated is set design and, separately, the artistic design of the entire picture (which likely includes preliminary elements of set design). Set decoration, a yet separate and integral element of any picture's "look" is not recognized by the Academy.
Best Costume Design
1. Patricia Field -
The Devil Wears Prada
yes, these real clothes were the best costumes of the year ... and far from being authentic high fashion, were very carefully selected for the
pop-image of high fashion that the story portrays.
Best Sound Mixing
John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin -
Flags of Our Fathers
Best Achievement in Editing
1. Clare Douglas, Richard Pearson, Christopher Rouse -
United 93
Best Sound Editing
Sean McCormack and Kami Asgar -
Apocalypto
Best Visual Effects
1.
Pirates of the Caribbean
Best Make-Up
2.
Apocalypto
(Click unseen)
Best Song
Truth be told, I have no idea which Dreamgirls song was which ... 3 were nominated, and each was likely inferior to many of the ineligible songs from the original show. So I can vote neither honestly nor honorably in this category.
Best Score
Alexandre Desplat -
The Queen
(
Notes on a Scandal - Unseen and unheard)
I found each of the nominated scores fairly unremarkable
Best Short Film, Animated
The Danish Poet
Best Short Film, Live Action
The Saviour
Best Short Documentary
None seen.
Best Feature Documentary
An Inconvenient Truth - which I liked better than the only other one I saw,
Jesus Camp
Best Foreign Language Film
I only saw
Pan's Labyrinth and am completely confident it's the best foreign language film of the year.
Best Animated Feature
2.
Cars
Indicating it was poor year for animated features.
In a couple of hours, we'll see how well the Academy agrees with me .... but it turns out Alex and I agree on quite a lot.
