My Oscar Ballot

With the Oscars just hours away, I thought I'd fill out my very own Oscar ballot and make my predictions. Below is a list of movies/actors who I think will win and who I want to win; sadly the two don't always coincide. It'll be interesting to see how closely my picks of who I think will win will match up to the actual winners, and even more interesting to see if my personal picks garner a surprise win (a la Alan Arkin nabbing best supporting actor for Little Miss Sunshine in 2006). Crossing my fingers.

Now go make your own predictions and watch the Oscars tonight on ABC at 5pm pacific/8pm eastern to see how you did!

Best Picture
A Serious Man
Avatar
An Education
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
The Blind Side
The Hurt Locker (my pick to win)
Up
Up in the Air (my personal pick)

Best Animated Feature
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox (my personal pick)
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up (my pick to win)

Best Foreign Language Film
Ajami, Israel
The Milk of Sorrow, Peru
A Prophet, France
El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Argentina
The White Ribbon, Germany (my pick to win)

Best Adapted Screenplay
An Education, Nick Hornby
District 9, Neil Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell
In the Loop, Jesse Armstrong & Simon Blackwell & Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air, Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner (my pick to win)

Best Original Screenplay
The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal (my pick to win)
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger, Alessandro Camon & Owen Moverman
A Serious Man, Ethan Coen & Joel Coen (my personal pick)
Up, Pete Docter & Thomas McCarthy & Bob Peterson

Best Director
Avatar, James Cameron
The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow (my pick to win)
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, Lee Daniels
Up in the Air, Jason Reitman

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart (my pick to win)
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side (my pick to win: as much as it hurts me to say, I think she'll be trumping my Meryl. I haven't yet had my peace with this, but we'll see what the ultimate outcome is.)
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (my personal pick)
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Matt Damon in Invictus
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds (my pick to win)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz in Nine
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (my pick to win)

Best Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker (my pick to win)
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Best Film Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker (my pick to win)
Inglourious Basterds (my personal pick)
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

Best Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker (my pick to win)
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker (my pick to win)
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Best Visual Effects
Avatar (my pick to win)
District 9
Star Trek

Best Original Score
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up (my pick to win)

Best Original Song
"The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart (my pick to win)
"Take It All" from Nine
"Loin de Paname" from Paris 36
"Almost There" from The Princess and the Frog
"Down in New Orleans" from The Princess and the Frog

Best Art Direction
Avatar: Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair (my pick to win)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus: Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
Nine: Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
Sherlock Holmes: Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Young Victoria: Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Best Documentary Feature
Burma VJ
The Cove (my pick to win)
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Best Makeup
Il Divo: Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
Star Trek: Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow (my pick to win)
The Young Victoria: Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore