But I'd Rather Get a Baldy

A mere three hours 'till the Oscars!

I know you're wondering, so here are my picks. Enjoy, and remember: no wagering!

BEST PICTURE
Brokeback Mountain

DIRECTOR
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain

ACTOR
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote

ACTRESS
Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line

SUPPORTING ACTOR
George Clooney, Syriana (for the record, I hope George wins in each of his categories)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Junebug

FOREIGN FILM
Tsotsi, South Africa

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Brokeback Mountain

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, Crash (Sorry Woody)

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

ART DIRECTION
Memoirs of a Geisha

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Batman Begins (A guy can dream, can't he?)

SOUND MIXING
King Kong

SOUND EDITING
King Kong

ORIGINAL SCORE
Munich, John Williams

ORIGINAL SONG
In the Deep, Kathleen "Bird" York and Michael Becker, "Crash"

COSTUME DESIGN
Memoirs of a Geisha

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
March of the Penguins

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club

FILM EDITING
Crash

MAKEUP
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Sorry Mr. Lucas)

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Ausreisser (The Runaway)

VISUAL EFFECTS
King Kong

I'll report back after the show, either to gloat or make excuses.

UPDATE 3/05, later that same day:

Time to gloat!

17 out of 24! That put me 6 ahead of James (who is some sorta' award-predicting savant as long as he's predicting off the cuff at the 11th-hour) and 7 ahead of Nancy (who normally kicks my ass in these ballot races... I'm sure she'll snap out of this funk by next year's Golden Globes, and I'll be singing a different tune then)!

I've highlighted those I guessed right. As you can see, I guessed... what was it? Oh yeah! 17 out of 24 right!

As far as my misses go, okay, I knew Batman Begins had no chance, and though I'd never bet against John Williams in the "Original Score" category, I feared I chose the less Oscar-worthy of his two noms to win (turns out Brokeback Mountain's score won... go figure), and that thing that won "Best Song?" Come on, that was shit. There are plenty of, y'know, good hip-hop songs out there today, and that one we saw interpretatively danced tonight? Not one of them. The short films? Who cares. You want me to care? Make a long film... the bigger the better. But speaking of big, the biggest upset? Honestly, who really thought Crash would take home the Oscar for "Best Picture?" That one? Not my fault. My prediction (Brokeback Mountain) was fine... the winner was wrong. So really, I got 18 out of 24.

Someone owes me a light saber.