No Guts, No Glory

Usually I'd have picked up the latest copy of Entertainment Weekly, or something similar, and kept myself updated on the Oscar buzz. But perhaps the continuing streak of amazement that the Chicago Bears are still playing at this point in the season has made me less faggish—or something like that.

Nonetheless, I did pretty well last year at picking nominees (better than I did at picking winners, unfortunately, but at least I didn't gamble actual money last year), and with that said, my five to ten minutes of research has led me to believe that your ballot is going to read like this for the "Big Eight":

BEST PICTURE
Babel
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
Martin Scorcese, The Departed
Bill Condon, Dreamgirls
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93

BEST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

BEST ACTRESS
Penelpoe Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Note on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Honsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Jack Nicholson, The Departed

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adrianna Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Babel
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
United 93
Volver

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Departed
The Devil Wears Prada
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal
Thank You For Smoking

Is now a bad time to mention that United 93 is the only film I've seen of any that I just listed???

UPDATE: That's 32 out of 40 (although one incorrect pick was the right actor in the wrong film, but ...). Since this was another pretty easy year, that's a fairly weak showing in my mind—especially considering last year's track record.

But Dreamgirls getting the most nods and no Best Picture or Best Director nomination really will make things pretty interesting come ceremony time.