FINAL Oscar Predictions (ahead of Nomination Tuesday)

Blogs aplenty to come. I'm happy to announce that I will be writing for NME columnist Owen Nicholls' website for the forseeable future, as well as this blog. His site goes live this week! For now, here are my final Academy Award predictions ahead of Tuesday's announcement. New insertions are highlighted in BOLD. Feel free to share yours!

Best Picture

The Hurt Locker

Star Trek

Inglourious Basterds

Avatar

Up in the Air

Up

An Education

Invictus

District 9

Precious

OUT: Where The Wild Things Are, The Messenger

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker

James Cameron - Avatar

Jason Reitman - Up in the Air

Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds

Lee Daniels - Precious

OUT: Clint Eastwood - Invictus

Best Actress

Carey Mulligan - An Education

Meryl Streep - Julie and Julia

Gabby Sidibe - Precious

Helen Mirren - The Last Station

Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side

OUT: Marion Cotillard - Nine

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart

George Clooney - Up in the Air

Colin Firth - A Single Man

Morgan Freeman - Invictus

Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker

Best Supporting Actress

Mo'Nique - Precious

Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air

Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air

Diane Kruger - Inglourious Basterds

Julianne Moore - A Single Man

OUT: Samantha Morton - The Messenger, Penelope Cruz - Nine

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds

Woody Harrelson - The Messenger

Stanley Tucci -The Lovely Bones

Matt Damon - Invictus

Christopher Plummer - The Last Station

Best Original Screenplay

Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds

Joel and Ethan Coen - A Serious Man

Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker

Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber - (500) Days of Summer

Bob Petersen, Pete Docter - Up

Best Adapted Screenplay

Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner - Up in the Air

Nick Hornby - An Education

Geoffrey Fletcher - Precious

Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell - District 9

Armando Iannuci - In The Loop

OUT: Spike Jonze, Dave Eggars - Where The Wild Things Are/Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach - Fantastic Mr Fox

Best Editing

The Hurt Locker

Avatar

Inglourious Basterds

District 9

(500) Days of Summer

OUT: Nine

Best Cinematography

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

The White Ribbon

Nine

Avatar

OUT: The Lovely Bones

Best Art Direction

Avatar

District 9

A Single Man

Inglourious Basterds

Julie and Julia

OUT: The Lovely Bones

Best Sound Mixing

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Star Trek

District 9

Nine

Best Sound Editing

Avatar

Up

Star Trek

District 9

The Hurt Locker

Best Costume Design

Bright Star

Inglourious Basterds

Coco Avant Chanel

Nine

The Young Victoria

OUT: Where The Wild Things Are

Best Original Score

Michael Giacchino - Up

Carter Burwell and Karen O - Where The Wild Things Are

Marvin Hamlisch - The Informant!

James Horner - Avatar

Abel Korzeniowski - A Single Man

OUT: Hans Zimmer - Sherlock Holmes

Best Song

'I See You' - Avatar

'All Is Love' - Where The Wild Things Are

'Cinema Italiano' - Nine

'The Weary Kind' - Crazy Heart

'Almost There' - The Princess and the Frog

Best Animated Feature

Up

Fantastic Mr Fox

The Princess and the Frog

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

Coraline

Best Visual Effects

Avatar

2012

Star Trek

District 9

Best Makeup

The Road

Star Trek

Nine

Best Foreign Language Film

A Prophet (France)

The White Ribbon (Germany)

Broken Embraces (Spain)

Winter in Wartime (The Netherlands)

Samson and Delilah (Australia)

OUT: Letters From Father Jacob (Finland), White Wedding (South Africa)



BIG blog tomorrow once the nominations are announced. 'Avatar' and 'Up In The Air' blogs up by the weekend...FINALLY!