Happy Oscar Day

As I get ready to sit down to watch 2012 (and hopefully District 9 and 500 Days of Summer following), I figured I'd turn my attention to another major movie event happening later today: the Oscars.

Now, if there's one thing I've learned about making Oscar picks, it's to go with whatever the major buzz is. In other words, if all you're hearing that one nominee is a shoe-in, it's because he/she/it is a shoe-in. Or to put it in terms none of you will understand, if you, as a nominee is getting a serious push, you're not jobbing to that mid-carder.

Unless Marisa Tomei accidentally reads your name off the card.

Anyways here are My Thought Process's picks for the 82nd Academy Awards. (Note: I'll stick to the major categories. I'm not going to try and figure out which should win Best Foreign Film"

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
* Ironically, Avatar, despite its rise to becoming the greatest movie of all time financially, isn't getting much Oscar love when it comes to getting the nod to win. But hey, this is the only nominee I've actually seen so far, so I'm cool with it.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
* I'd like to pick Gabourey Sidibe (Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire) because I heard she was really good in a very unconventional role. However, everybody is picking Bullock - which is weird because the movie did zip in theatres.

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)
* All right! Another movie I saw this past year. I have to admit,however, walking out of Inglorious Basterds, I was not expecting it to amount to much more than a really cool "Guy Movie".

Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique (Precious)
* Okay, maybe this is where Precious will win. Just a thought: maybe this movie would do better if it was just called Precious, having not added everything afterwards. People probably voted against it thinking "What if I have to present the award? It'll take me 10 minutes to get through the title!" Also, I'd really like Maggie Gyllenhaal to win this, but I know she won't.

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
* Again, this isn't who I'd want to win (Tarantino) but I think Bigelow will win. By the way, if you want to see a really good Bigelow film, check out 1990's Blue Steel, starring Jamie Lee Curtis. I think it's Bigelow's first film.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up In the Air)
* My preference? Nick Hornby's An Education, just because it's Nick Hornby.

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds)


...SIGH...

You know what? I could have saved myself a lot of time and effort and just linked this site to Kelly's blog because her picks and my picks are identical, and she does a lot more research to back up her choices. Oh well, at least I'm almost 100% I can come back tomorrow and go "YEAH!!! 8 for 8!!!!" Because if Kelly's picks are backing mine up, I'm pretty confident my picks have a good chance of coming in.

Damn...I should have had an Oscar pool at work or something, made a few bucks.