Views on 82nd Academy Awards

As we all know, the Oscars are this upcoming Sunday. Might as well share my views on some of the major categories for this year:

Best Picture
For the first time in 66 years, AMPAS is going back to the ten Best Picture nominees. Opinions on the decision were mixed when it was announced last summer, I myself sketchy on the ordeal. But after it sunk in a bit, it wasn't a bad idea (less people griping about a certain movie not getting nominated anyway, like last year); after all, the last time there were ten nominees was when Casablanca won Best Picture.

The nominees for this year are diverse, ranging from sci-fi (Avatar, District 9) to issue dramas (Precious, A Serious Man). And also for the the first since 1991, an animated movie has been nominated for Best Picture (Up).

Fingers crossed for...The Hurt Locker.

Best Director
This should be interesting when they get to this category on Oscar night. Why do I say that? Because Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and James Cameron (Avatar) are up against each other. Now it doesn't sound like that big of a deal at first, but once you learn that they were once married then it is. The others are previous nominees Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) and Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), and first time nominee Lee Daniels (Precious). Bigelow and Daniels make marks for this year since Bigelow is the fourth woman to be nominated for Best Director (after Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola) and Daniels is the second African-American to be nominated (after John Singleton).

Fingers crossed for...Kathryn Bigelow.

Best Actor
Having seen four of the five nominees (have yet to see Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker), I'm very positive on who's going to be winning. Along with Renner, the others include past winners George Clooney (Up in the Air) and Morgan Freeman (Invictus), past nominee Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) and first-timer Colin Firth (A Single Man).

Fingers crossed for...Jeff Bridges. Though I wouldn't mind if Colin Firth won either.

Best Actress
Unlike the Best Actor category, I've only seen one of the five nominees (Carey Mulligan in An Education). Her fellow nominees include Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) and Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia).

Though at first I was supporting Streep to win Oscar #3, it would be interesting to see Bullock win. Maybe she'll finally do a good movie for once...

Fingers crossed for...Sandra Bullock.

Best Supporting Actor
If you've been paying to award season at all, you know that one actor has been sweeping the entire awards circuit for this specific category. The actor? Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds. Other nominees include past nominees Woody Harrelson (The Messenger) and Matt Damon (Invictus), and first-timers Christopher Plummer (!) (The Last Station) and Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones).

Fingers crossed for...Christoph Waltz.

Best Supporting Actress
Much like Supporting Actor, this category has been swept by one actress. This actress is Mo'Nique for her work in Precious. The other nominees include past winner Penelope Cruz (Nine) and first-timers Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart).

Fingers crossed for...Mo'Nique.

Best Original Screeplay
This category's interetsing since three of the five nominees focus on war (The Hurt Locker, The Messenger, Inglourious Basterds). The other two are A Serious Man and Up.

Fingers crossed for...Inglourious Basterds.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Unlike the Original Screeplay category, the Adapted Screenplay nominees have topics varying from relationships (An Education), politics (In the Loop), sci-fi (District 9), employment (Up in the Air) and life at home (Precious).

Fingers crossed for...Up in the Air.

Best Animated Feature
Different fields of animation filled the category. From CGI (Up) to hand-drawn (The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells) to stop-motion (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline), this category has it all this year.

Fingers crossed for...Up.

So what do you think?