Speed McQueen's Oscar Picks

Having seen the overwhelming majority of Oscar noms, I'm throwing my hat in the ring of Oscar picking. I propose to all other contributors to do the same. Afterward we'll then see who has got the hot hand and should promptly abandon their job in favor of a life of I-Banking. Honestly folks, if you can really pick stocks there's no way they'll make you work 80 hours a week. And bear in mind that these are my predictions, not necessarily who I feel merits the statue.

Here goes:

Best Picture: Babel (immigration, terrorism, globalization! it was like an issue of the Economist but with pretty people)

Best Director: Martin Scorcese (finally Marty, finally)

Best Actor: Forrest Whitaker (taking one back for lazy eyes the world over)

Best Actress: Helen Mirren (admit it, she was still sorta hot in those clunky shoes)

Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy (yeesh)

Best Supporting Actress: Rinko Kinkuchi (probably the best performance of the year)

Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth (Al deserves to win something)

Best Foreign Language Film: Pan's Labyrinth (i can't stop thinking about that monster with his eyes in his hands)

Best Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine (shut out in all other categories, but a winner here: call it the Pulp Fiction effect)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Little Children (i loved it, i loved it, i loved it)


I suppose we could all hazard guesses about sound mixing, but let's cap it here. With that said Notes on a Scandal should win for Best Score, and Makeup should go to Pan's Labyrinth.

Of course the movie that could have taken every award this Oscar season is a quirky, uplifting tale of a plucky youngster's suburban malaise in a grim, but imaginable, future: "Miss Sunshine's Little Children of Men." I'm working on a treatment now!

PS How can Letters from Iwo Jima be up for best picture and not for best foreign-language picture. Was it not in Japanese? Did I imagine it as I sat there reading subtitles?