MY PREDICTIONS FOR THE 82nd OSCAR NOMINATIONS

I posted my predictions for the Oscar nominations last year here on my site and I did a pretty terrible job of matching up with the actual nods. So I figured I'd try again this year and see if I could do any better. At the very least, there is no brilliant superhero movie (*cough* The Dark Knight *cough*) to be surprisingly ignored on nomination morning, so at least I won't be blinded quite like I was last year. But with the Best Picture lineup being expanded from 5 to 10 nominees, this is still a tough year to predict the top category.

Just like last year, I decided to opt out of predicting the three Short categories (Live Action Short, Animated Short, and Documentary Short) because guessing those is a complete shot in the dark. It's probably a safe bet that Partly Cloudy, the Pixar short that played in front of Up last summer, will be nominated for Animated Short, but that's about all I can guess at this point. But other than that, the remaining categories are all here. Hopefully I'll do slightly better than I did last year. I haven't really gone out on too many limbs here, but perhaps the Academy has a trick up their collective sleeve. We shall see on Tuesday morning!

PICTURE
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Precious
Up
Up in the Air

DIRECTOR
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

ACTRESS
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabby Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
Mo'Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Peter Capaldi, In the Loop
Matt Damon, Invictus
Alec Baldwin, It's Complicated
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Up

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
District 9
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Precious
A Single Man
Up in the Air

ANIMATED FEATURE
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ponyo
The Princess and the Frog
Up

FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Kelin
The Milk of Sorrow
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Beaches of Agnes
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food Inc.
Which Way Home

ART DIRECTION
Avatar
Bright Star
Inglourious Basterds
The Road
A Single Man

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
A Single Man
The White Ribbon

COSTUME DESIGN
Bright Star
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Young Victoria

EDITING
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek

SOUND MIXING
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Up

SOUND EDITING
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

ORIGINAL SONG
I See You, Avatar
The Weary Kind, Crazy Heart
Cinema Italiano, Nine
Almost There, The Princess and the Frog
All Is Love, Where the Wild Things Are

ORIGINAL SCORE
Avatar
The Blind Side
A Single Man
Star Trek
Up

MAKEUP
District 9
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
The Young Victoria

VISUAL EFFECTS
2012
Avatar
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen