Jon Stewart should host the Oscars every year - and know you can’t beat an 11-year-old at Wii tennis.

Even if you are French, as long as you are a hot young actress who “deglams” you’ll always beat out the competition. Congrats Marion Cotillard.

I want a recount on the editing award. Would have loved to have seen the Coens win 4 Oscars in one night.

If Roger Deakins can’t win an Oscar for The Assassination of Jesse James, I can’t imagine what he does have to do to win one.

The gods must be crazy because they gave us Diablo Cody. Her acceptance speech was one of the most heartfelt I’ve ever seen. Definitely worth checking out on YouTube.

Here are the winners:
Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Best Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
Best Actor: Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno
Best Animated Feature: Ratatouille
Best Doc Feature: Taxi to the Dark Side
Best Doc Short: Freeheld
Best Score: Atonement
Best Cinematography: Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Best Song: Falling Slowly, Once
Best Foreign Language Film: The Counterfeiters
Best Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
Best Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum
Best Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
Animated Short: Peter and the Wolf
Live Action short: Le Mozart des Pickpockets
Art Direction: Sweeney Todd
Visual Effects: The Golden Compass
Best Makeup: La Vie Rose
Best Costume Design: Elizabeth, The Golden Age

I only got 10/21, which is pretty low, but for every one I got wrong, I wasn’t too unhappy with the winner. When did the Academy get taste? Oh yeah. They did give The Bourne Ultimatum three awards. Nevermind.

I’ve officially lost count of just how many awards No Country for Old Men has won this Oscar season. It’s taken home the DGA, PGA, SAG and WGA awards, something only one other film has done since the SAGs started giving out the Motion Picture Cast prize. That film was American Beauty. We know how that Oscar season ended.

More shocking is No Country for Old Men’s near swept of the less publicized guild awards like the Cinema Audio Society award and the Art Directors Guild award. Even American Beauty can’t make that claim. It’s time to stop talking about if No Country for Old Men is going to win at the Oscars. We may want to start asking if it’s going to lose anything.

With that in mind, I’m giving No Country for Old Men a solid sweep at the Oscars. Here are the finals predictions for next Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony.

Motion Picture - No Country for Old Men, Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, and Joel Coen
Actor in a Leading Role - Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood
Actor in a Supporting Role - Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
Actress in a Leading Role - Marion Cotillard in La Vie En Rose
Actress in a Supporting Role – Ruby Dee in American Gangster
Adapted Screenplay - No Country for Old Men, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Original Screenplay - Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy (Sorry, Juno fans.)
Animated Feature Film - Ratatouille, Brad Bird
Art Direction - There Will Be Blood, Jack Fisk (art director) and Jim Erickson (set decorator)
Cinematography - No Country for Old Men, Roger Deakins
Costume Design - Sweeney Todd, Colleen Atwood
Directing - No Country for Old Men, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Documentary Feature - No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Film Editing - No Country for Old Men, Roderick Jaynes
Foreign Language Film - The Counterfeiters
Makeup - La Vie En Rose, Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
Music, Score - Atonement, Dario Marianelli
Music, Song - Once, “Falling Slowly”, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
Sound Editing - No Country for Old Men, Skip Lievsay
Sound Mixing - No Country for Old Men, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Visual Effects - Transformers, Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl, and John Frazier
Short Film Animated - I Met the Walrus, Josh Raskin
Short Film Live Action - The Tonto Woman, Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown
Documentary Short - Sari’s Mother, James Longley

The 80th Annual Academy Awards air Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.

Well, No Country for Old Men continues to steamroll the competition in the race for Oscar.  This weekend’s Producer’s Guild of America win means it has officially won top prize from every guild.  Even The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King didn’t do that. (The Peter Jackson fantasy epic lost the WGA Adapted Screenplay prize to American Splendor).

While No Country for Old Men deserves every award it gets, the season is quickly becoming very boring.  Is anyone even hearing a hint of dissension in the Oscar race?  Well, I recently wrote an article for BlogCritics.org on how Oscar night can be interesting again.  You can check it out here.  It’s a quiet acknowledgment that the Oscars aren’t supposed to award the best in film.  The Oscars are all about show business.  When Crash won Best Picture, it was shocking and even if the film wasn’t any good. I’d much rather experience a jaw-drop than a yawn.  So, Academy, I urge you to make my jaw hit the floor.

Unless that means giving the Oscar to a disaster like Atonement.

These totals are bound to change after this weekend’s re-release of Michael Clayton and re-expansion for No Country for Old Men, as well as an inevitable expansion for There Will Be Blood. Still, here’s the box office so far for this year’s Best Picture nominees.

2007/2008 Best Picture Box Office Picture
(with release dates)

• Atonement (Dec. 7)-$33 million
• Juno (Dec.5)-$87 million
• Michael Clayton (Oct. 5)-$39 million
• No Country for Old Men (Nov. 9)-$49 million
• There Will Be Blood (Dec. 26)-$9 million

For a perspective on the Best Picture bounce, here are last year’s nominees with pre- and post- nomination totals.

2006/2007 Best Picture Box Office Picture

• Babel-$24 million/$34.3 million
• The Departed -$121.8 million/$132.4 million
• Letters From Iwo Jima-$2 million/$13.7 million
• Little Miss Sunshine-$59.5/$59.8 million (already released on DVD)
• The Queen-$36.3 million/$56.4 million

More box office figures at BoxOfficeMojo.com.

Well I took a chance on not predicting Atonement and There Will Be Blood. It didn’t pay off. Neither did the notion that the Academy was going to anoint new faves. Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett both got in for lead acting, with Ryan Gosling and Amy Adams snubbed. Points for a good showing by Ratatouille with 5 nominations.

Here are the nominations for the 80th Academy Awards:

Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
(DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah” (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises” (Focus Features)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson’s War” (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in “Into the Wild” (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Universal)
Julie Christie in “Away from Her” (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in “The Savages” (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in “Juno” (Fox Searchlight)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in “I’m Not There” (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in “American Gangster” (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in “Atonement” (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone” (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)

Best animated feature film of the year
“Persepolis” (Sony Pictures Classics) Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney) Brad Bird
“Surf’s Up” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

Achievement in art direction
“American Gangster” (Universal)
Art Direction: Arthur Max
Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
“Atonement” (Focus Features)
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Golden Compass” (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners)
Art Direction: Dennis Gassner
Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
“Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Art Direction: Dante Ferretti
Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Art Direction: Jack Fisk
Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Achievement in cinematography
“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Warner Bros.) Roger Deakins
“Atonement” (Focus Features) Seamus McGarvey
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Janusz Kaminski
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roger Deakins
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Robert Elswit

Achievement in costume design
“Across the Universe” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Albert Wolsky
“Atonement” (Focus Features) Jacqueline Durran
“Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Universal) Alexandra Byrne
“La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse) Marit Allen
“Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount) Colleen Atwood

Achievement in directing
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Julian Schnabel
“Juno” (Fox Searchlight) Jason Reitman
“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.) Tony Gilroy
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Paul Thomas Anderson

Best documentary feature
“No End in Sight” (Magnolia Pictures)
A Representational Pictures Production
Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience” (The Documentary Group)
A Documentary Group Production
Richard E. Robbins
“Sicko” (Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company)
A Dog Eat Dog Films Production
Michael Moore and Meghan O’Hara
“Taxi to the Dark Side” (THINKFilm)
An X-Ray Production
Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
“War/Dance” (THINKFilm)
A Shine Global and Fine Films Production
Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine

Best documentary short subject
“Freeheld”
A Lieutenant Films Production
Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
“La Corona (The Crown)”
A Runaway Films and Vega Films Production
Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
“Salim Baba”
A Ropa Vieja Films and Paradox Smoke Production
Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
“Sari’s Mother” (Cinema Guild)
A Daylight Factory Production
James Longley

Achievement in film editing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal) Christopher Rouse
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Juliette Welfling
“Into the Wild” (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment) Jay Cassidy
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Dylan Tichenor

Best foreign language film of the year
“Beaufort” A Metro Communications, Movie Plus Production
Israel
“The Counterfeiters” An Aichholzer Filmproduktion, Magnolia Filmproduktion Production
Austria
“Katyń” An Akson Studio Production
Poland
“Mongol” A Eurasia Film Production
Kazakhstan
“12” A Three T Production
Russia

Achievement in makeup
“La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
“Norbit” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount) Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Walt Disney) Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Atonement” (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli
“The Kite Runner” (DreamWorks, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Participant Productions, Distributed by Paramount Classics) Alberto Iglesias
“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.) James Newton Howard
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino
“3:10 to Yuma” (Lionsgate) Marco Beltrami

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Falling Slowly” from “Once”
(Fox Searchlight)
Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
“Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted”
(Walt Disney)
Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“Raise It Up” from “August Rush”
(Warner Bros.)
Nominees to be determined
“So Close” from “Enchanted”
(Walt Disney)
Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“That’s How You Know” from “Enchanted”
(Walt Disney)
Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

Best motion picture of the year
“Atonement” (Focus Features)
A Working Title Production
Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers
“Juno” (Fox Searchlight)
A Dancing Elk Pictures, LLC Production
Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
A Clayton Productions, LLC Production
Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production
Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production
JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

Best animated short film
“I Met the Walrus”
A Kids & Explosions Production
Josh Raskin
“Madame Tutli-Putli” (National Film Board of Canada)
A National Film Board of Canada Production
Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
“Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)” (Premium Films)
A BUF Compagnie Production
Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
“My Love (Moya Lyubov)” (Channel One Russia)
A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production
Alexander Petrov
“Peter & the Wolf” (BreakThru Films)
A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production
Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

Best live action short film
“At Night”
A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production
Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
“Il Supplente (The Substitute)” (Sky Cinema Italia)
A Frame by Frame Italia Production
Andrea Jublin
“Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)” (Premium Films)
A Karé Production
Philippe Pollet-Villard
“Tanghi Argentini” (Premium Films)
An Another Dimension of an Idea Production
Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
“The Tonto Woman”
A Knucklehead, Little Mo and Rose Hackney Barber Production
Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

Achievement in sound editing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal)
Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Skip Lievsay
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney)
Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Matthew Wood
“Transformers” (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro)
Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

Achievement in sound mixing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal)
Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney)
Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
“3:10 to Yuma” (Lionsgate)
Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
“Transformers” (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro)
Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

Achievement in visual effects
“The Golden Compass” (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners)
Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Walt Disney)
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
“Transformers” (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro)
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

Adapted screenplay
“Atonement” (Focus Features)
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
“Away from Her” (Lionsgate)
Written by Sarah Polley
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn)
Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson

Original screenplay
“Juno” (Fox Searchlight)
Written by Diablo Cody
“Lars and the Real Girl” (MGM)
Written by Nancy Oliver
“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
Written by Tony Gilroy
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney)
Screenplay by Brad Bird
Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
“The Savages” (Fox Searchlight)
Written by Tamara Jenkins

I’m taking a few risks with these predictions, namely being a complete Atonement shut out. Ten years ago, I don’t think I would have said the same thing, but the Academy landscape has changed since then.

Best Picture

• Michael Clayton
• Juno
• Into the Wild
  
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
  
• No Country For Old Men
• Alt: There Will Be Blood

Conventional wisdom would have There Will Be Blood in the final 5, but with so many Paramount Vantage films in the running, it seems like there is bound to be one that doesn’t make the cut. With comparisons to Citizen Kane and other grandiose reviews, is it the final that the Academy doesn’t like because they have to like it? Juno still seems like the most vulnerable, but damn it, money talks and it’s made more than any other potential nominee.

Best Director

• Ethan & Joel Coen, No Country For Old Men
• Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
• Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Sean Penn, Into the Wild
• Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
• Alt: Ridley Scott, American Gangster
  

I don’t see Jason Reitman making the cut, which is why I picked Scott as the alt prediction. This lineup for the director nomination doesn’t look to have much wiggle room.

Best Actor

• Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood
• Emile Hirsch, Into the Wild
• Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
  
• Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl
• George Clooney, Michael Clayton
• Alt: Denzel Washington, American Gangster

Gosling over Denzel, Johnny, and Hanks? The BFCA and SAG seem to think so. If I keep up with the younger hipper Academy motif with my predictions, I can’t put the ‘old guard’ in where the new talented faces can be placed.

Best Actress

• Ellen Page, Juno
• Amy Adams, Enchanted
• Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
• Julie Christie, Away From Her
• Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
• Alt: Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
  

For me, this will be the race to watch, like the Sissie Spacek run for In the Bedroom. Christie’s got a nomination in the bag, as do Page and Cotillard. It may still be a three horse race for the prize. SAG will clear things up. I’m going for Amy Adams over Cate Blanchett because Blanchett has I’m Not There. And Adams, like Gosling, may be on the road to Oscar fave territory.

Best Supporting Actor

• Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
• Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
• Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
• Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton
• Alt: Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men

I’m honestly a little uncomfortable predicting Hoffman, knowing that Jones had a magnificent year. But Hoffman had a great year, too. I’m banking on his three Oscar-worthy performances trumpting Jones’s two. It all comes down to No Country for Old Men love.

Best Supporting Actress

• Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
• Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
  
• Ruby Dee, American Gangster
  
• Catherine Keener, Into the Wild
  
• Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
• Alt: Saoirse Ronan, Atonement

Continuing with my prediction of a complete snub for Atonement, I’m kicking out the film’s most Oscar-worthy performance and putting in Ruby Dee. I don’t see any other surprises, unless the inevitability of one Cate Blanchett catches up with her.

Best Original Screenplay

• Juno
• Ratatouille
• Knocked Up
• Michael Clayton
• Lars and the Real Girl
• Alt: The Savages

Best Adapted Screenplay

• No Country For Old Men
• There Will Be Blood
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
• Into the Wild
• Charlie Wilson’s War
• Alt: Zodiac

The Oscar nominations will be announced live Feb. 22 at 8:30 a.m. EST on E!

Looks like Warner Bros. is expecting a Best Picture Oscar nomination for Michael Clayton next Tuesday morning. The film is set for a re-release on Jan. 25. Michael Clayton is one of the best films of 2007, and part of me is rooting for it as a Best Picture spoiler. The trail of No Country For Old Men wins, Golden Globe loss notwithstanding, is would make for an uninteresting night. No Country is also set for another roll out next Friday.

From the Brothers Warner Press Office:

On the heels of widespread critical acclaim and awards season recognition, Warner Bros. Pictures is planning a theatrical re-release of Tony Gilroy’s drama Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney in the title role. The film will return to theatres on January 25 in approximately 1,000 locations in North America. The announcement was made today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution.

Originally released in October 2007, Michael Clayton was immediately met with praise from both critics and audiences. In recent weeks, it has been named to more than 100 critics’ top-ten lists, including those of the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, People, and Time, as well as the American Film Institute, to name only a few.

In Michael Clayton, George Clooney stars in the title role of an in-house “fixer” at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. At the behest of the firm’s co-founder Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), Clayton, a former prosecutor from a family of cops, takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen’s dirtiest work. Clayton cleans up clients’ messes, handling anything from hit-and-runs and damaging stories in the press to shoplifting wives and crooked politicians. Though burned out and discontented in his job, Clayton is inextricably tied to the firm. At the agrochemical company U/North, the career of in-house chief counsel Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) rests on the settlement of the suit that Kenner, Bach & Ledeen is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. When the firm’s top litigator, the brilliant Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), has an apparent breakdown and tries to sabotage the entire case, Marty Bach sends Michael Clayton to tackle this unprecedented disaster and, in doing so, Clayton comes face to face with the reality of who he has become.

Two of the highest profile foreign language films didn’t make the cut. The Romanian Cannes Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days and France’s acclaimed animated film Persepolis both missed making Phase II, which means these nine films are the best foreign language films ever, right?

Here are the nominees from the Academy release:

Nine films will advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 80th Academy Awards®. Sixty-three films had originally qualified in the category.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Austria, “The Counterfeiters,” Stefan Ruzowitzky, director
Brazil, “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation,” Cao Hamburger, director
Canada, “Days of Darkness,” Denys Arcand, director
Israel, “Beaufort,” Joseph Cedar, director
Italy, “The Unknown,” Giuseppe Tornatore, director
Kazakhstan, “Mongol,” Sergei Bodrov, director
Poland, “Katyn,” Andrzej Wajda, director
Russia, “12,” Nikita Mikhalkov, director
Serbia, “The Trap,” Srdan Golubovic, director

Looking at the list, The Counterfeiters may be the frontrunner at this point, though Denys Arcand has never won an Oscar. Five finalists will be nominated for the Oscar, with the winner to be announced at the Feb. 24 awards ceremony.

By 9:30 last night, we knew who all of the Golden Globe winners were.  Yes, even the TV awards winners.  I haven’t watched the Globes in years, so I’m glad I didn’t have to wait to see the winners get posted on a blog at 11 p.m.

But take a look at this list.  The HFPA gets more boring every year now that they are the LAST critics group to chime in on awards season.  Sure, they gave their Best Picture to Atonement, but it’s a film the HFPA always picks.  As for the acting awards, no surprises. Christie, Cotillard, Day-Lewis, Depp.  Blah.  Yes, the Globes get less interesting every year, while ever other critics group, specifically the BFCA Critics Choice Awards, get more fun and more unpredictable.

Here are the winners:

Best Picture: Atonement
Best Actor, Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Actress, Drama: Julie Christie, Away From Her
Best Picture Comedy/Musical: Sweeney Todd
Best Screenplay: No Country for Old Men
Best Actor Musical/Comedy: Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
Best Director: Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Best Actress - Musical Comedy: Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
Animated Film: Ratatouille
Best Song: “Guaranteed,” Into the Wild
Best Score: Atonement (WTF…did they even see There Will Be Blood?)
Best Foreign Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Half the winners didn’t show up at the Critics Choice Awards. The Golden Globes are going to be a Dateline special. What will come of the Academy Awards ceremony? I can live without the Globes. In fact, I prefer never to see that show on the air again. But dammit, I want my Oscars!

Since my last update, I’ve seen this year’s Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, and I’d be surprised if it didn’t get nominated. Unfortunately, it didn’t grab a Director’s Guild nomination like last year’s sunshiny comedy smash.

There Will Be Blood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, Michael Clayton and Oscar-frontrunner No Country for Old Men grabbed the coveted DGA nods, which are the best indicators of which films will go on to get Best Picture nominations.

Regardless, I put Juno in my Best Picture predictions, with The Diving Bell’s Julian Schnabel getting a placed in the Best Director slot over Juno’s Jason Reitman. Money is almost always a factor with Best Picture nominees. Juno has $54.5 million in the bank and currently has the best daily box office numbers. I’d be surprised if Juno didn’t nab a PGA nod when they are announced next week (Jan. 14). I’d be just as surprised if the only contender with the legs to push $100 million didn’t go on to get a Best Picture nod.

The big story post-DGA may be Into the Wild and Michael Clayton. Both films have major guild support. With No Country for Old Men getting a little tired, Sean Penn’s Into the Wild and Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton could swing in for the upset. I’m banking on Into the Wild being the likely contender. If Penn wins the DGA award, watch out.

Anyway, here are the updated charts.
Oscar 2007 - 2008 Prediction Charts