OSCAR NIGHT .. my picks

The Oscars are on Sunday, so get your party dresses on for my second favourite awards night of the year (I’m partial to the Globes, due to my TV obsession).
Here are my choices for the main categories this weekend:

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges. He won the Globe so he's more likely already. Also, he's one of those, "always a bridesmaid, never a bride", guys. He's been nominated a few times and never won, and critics are saying this year my be his year to win.

Best Actress: Now, I’m going mainstream with my choice this year because I’m following my heart! I want Sandra Bullock to win for her hard-ass Mom role in THE BLINDSIDE, my guilty-pleasure movie of the year.

Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz. Without a doubt, the most memorable male role of the year. With such grace, style and so much passion that you can’t help but love to hate him.

Supporting Actress: Although Anna Kendrick killed her performance in UP IN THE AIR, as a neurotic over-achiever, the statue is definitely going to Mo’Nique hands down. Her performance was so convincing in PRECIOUS that she left me speechless.

Best Original Screenplay: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS all the way! Tarantino, the talented Writer-Director, has once again written a fantastic story. I loved his choice of words, especially with Brad attempting to speak Italian with his Heavy Southern accent. Tarantino has a way of taking a serious issue, be it revenge or a bank robbery, or even a near-death drug overdose, and making it darkly comedic. And of course, a shout out to B.J. Novak from THE OFFICE (Ryan the Temp!) for his small but memorable role.

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow or James Cameron, Talk about the ultimate battle of the exes. The two, who were married for a couple of years in the 80s are going head-to-head with the two most talked-about films of the year. Vastly different and hard to compare, will the Oscar go to Cameron's technologically inspiring Blockbuster or to the much smaller in terms of budget and the box office. I think, with Direction being what it is, directing the actors and frames to be as effective as possible, it’s a toss up. The Hurt Locker was frame-by-frame intensity, and extremely focused on the characters and their conflicting emotions. Avatar was visually breathtaking, but it WAS in 3D so that added to its beauty. Not sure what an effect 3D would have had on The Hurt Locker. Probably a traumatizing one. I guess I vote Kathryn Bigelow.

Best Pictures: 10 Nominations??? Now, although daunting, most of these are just here to fill out the top 10 for the year, and to keep the public happy. Now, looking at history, an animated feature’s never won Best Picture so its unlikely that UP will take the award home. And THE BLINDSIDE, although extremely good commercially (not gonna lie, I did cry), it probably won’t win this one. I want to say AVATAR, just because it’s almost obvious, but this year’s BAFTA Best Picture winner (THE HURT LOCKER) shows that it may not be as easy as AVATAR. I think though, just to be safe, I’ll put my vote on AVATAR.

We'll just have to wait for Monday to see what the real outcome is and how well I guessed.