There's no business like show business...

[Copyright Reuters]

I can't believe it- for the second year in a row, I'm missing the Oscars 'live'! Over the past 13 years or so, I've never missed the Oscar telecasts if I could help it, a.k.a only when I was teaching, and last year when we were in Boston for spring break. Apart from that, when I was back home, it would either be skipping class in college and holing myself up in my best friend's dorm room for four hours on a Monday morning, or that year when I had to watch it at home, with my best friend on the phone. It's become a ritual of sorts for the two of us- until today. For the past four years, we continue to "watch" the Oscars together- via text-messaging ;) We swap our predictions beforehand and watch the telecast with our phones by our sides. We text-message throughout the ceremony, rooting for our choices, sniggering over someone's gown, or how ridiculous some of the Best Song performances are, making fun of the presenters (like the year Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek presented the award for Best Score to Gustavo Santaolalla for Brokeback Mountain- you know they were the only two actresses in Hollywood glamorous enough to announce his name with flair and authenticity)... Honestly, at this point, I think it's become less about the show and more about us keeping this thing we have alive despite the distance between us.

I know, I know... every year I tell myself the Oscars are becoming more and more of a sham (even if I don't, my husband never fails to remind me...), from the outrage of Crash winning over Brokeback Mountain two years ago to the whole "OMG I can't believe a completely unimaginative rip-off of a seminal Hong Kong film won" tragedy of last year. But I just get excited by the Oscars- I can't help it. It's been like this since Singapore first started showing the Oscars 'live' on Monday mornings, and as much as I know it's just huge self-congratulatory posturing on Hollywood's part, I willingly and helplessly allow myself to get suckered into the whole sham. I'm weak that way... ;)

So having said that, my predictions for this year are as follows (several of my choices had to be based purely on reviews I read since this year, we just didn't have the time to watch as many of the films as we wanted):

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Daniel Day-Lewis - THERE WILL BE BLOOD
NYT's Carpetbagger put it best:
"A small thought exercise: Try to pick somebody here who did not do work worthy of the ultimate award... Now another exercise: Try to picture someone other than Mr. Day-Lewis accepting the award. The minute he pulled himself from the bowels of the earth in “There Will Be Blood” you knew he would not stop until he reached the podium at the Kodak Theater."

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Javier Bardem - NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Marion Cotillard, LA VIE EN ROSE
Jude and I have seen her all flighty and sultry in Taxi and viciously mysterious in A Very Long Engagement, but who knew she could also hauntingly bring Edith Piaf alive on so many levels? La Vie En Rose came and went here in Ann Arbor but I did see clips of her performance online, and she's was simply fabulous...

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett - I'M NOT THERE
Another performance I ended up watching on YouTube. Uncanny. Eerily uncanny. That's all I can say.

Best animated feature film of the year
RATATOUILLE
Because it made me so happy :) (Although I wouldn't be at all upset if Persepolis won- that might actually revive in me the hope that the Academy's voters are becoming somehow more discerning...)

Achievement in art direction
SWEENY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET

Achievement in cinematography
THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Achievement in costume design
ATONEMENT
That emerald green dress will forever go down in Hollywood history... That and maybe the white bathing suit and cap.

Achievement in directing
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
I can't wait to hear a Coen brothers' acceptance speech!

Best documentary feature
NO END IN SIGHT
The time is ripe for this.

Best documentary short subject
FREEHELD

Achievement in film editing
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
I thought this was the most compelling movie of the entire franchise and for the first time in a long time, I was actually very aware of how a film's editing contributed to its overall aesthetic.

Best foreign language film of the year
THE COUNTERFEITERS

Achievement in makeup
LA VIE EN ROSE
Because Marion Cotillard's transformation was amazing.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
ATONEMENT
Suitably (and safely) evocative and haunting. Pedigree for this category. (Although it wasn't even nominated, There Will Be Blood actually comes with one kick-ass soundtrack. But I don't think the Academy is ready for Jonny Greenwood's postmodern dissonance.)

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Falling Slowly" - ONCE
This one was a no-brainer. (Watch the scene here- it's beautiful. And heartbreaking...) This is the one performance of the night I'm sore I'm going to miss :(

Best motion picture of the year
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
It's their time :)

Best animated short film
I MET THE WALRUS

Best live action short film
THE TONTO WOMAN

Achievement in sound editing
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
If you've listened to the soundtrack, visited the website and watched the movie (or at least clips of it), you'll understand why.

Achievement in sound mixing
TRANSFORMERS
Remember, in this category, bigger and louder always means better.

Achievement in visual effects
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END

Adapted screenplay
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Original screenplay
JUNO
Really, do I have to explain this choice? OK, fine. See here.