If you’ve made it this far, you’ll recognize that there’s only one category left. Well, for those who are actually counting, there are two. Best Picture is what we’ll be discussing today. The Live Action Short Film category has not had an official list released by the Academy, so we won’t be covering it this year, perhaps next year. But, for now, Best Picture is what you get.

For those of you who don’t know, tomorrow morning, around 5:35a PST (6:30a MST, 7:30a CST, 8:30a EST), the Academy will announce its 82nd Annual Academy Awards Nominations. Only ten categories will be announced live, but 24 will be in competition. If you haven’t already printed out your tracking sheet or checked out the Oscar Morning primer I put together, do so at this link: Oscar Morning.

Now, to the task at hand. Here are our predictions for the Best Picture nominees of 2009.

Best Picture

Avatar (Unanimous)
Crazy Heart (Wes)
District 9 (Unanimous)
An Education (Unanimous)
The Hangover (Wesley)
The Hurt Locker (Unanimous)
Inglourious Basterds (Unanimous)
Invictus (Peter, Tripp)
The Messenger (Peter)
Precious (Unanimous)
A Serious Man (Tripp)
A Single Man (Wes)
Star Trek (Wesley)
Up (Unanimous)
Up in the Air (Unanimous)

Comments

Wesley Lovell: XXX Alternate Prediction: Invictus
Peter J. Patrick: I’m confident of “Avatar”, “District 9”, “The Hurt Locker”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “Up” and “Up in the Air”. Beyond that it’s anybody’s guess. My greatest hope – that “Nine” is shut out of all major categories including this one.
Tripp Burton: And then there were 10. There are four films that have been the front-runners all season that can’t miss out here: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious and Up in the Air. If we still had only five nominees, those would be our five. District 9 and Up are the kind of critically praised genre films that should be able to take advantage of an enlarged state, while former powerhouse Invictus should be able to hold on just enough to barely get in here. I think that with this new large list and voting structure, films with a passionate minority of lovers should be able to sneak onto the list, which should allow An Education and A Serious Man to make it on here. (500) Days of Summer has been out-performing expectations all year and could sneak in here. Alternate Prediction: (500) Days of Summer
Wes Huizar: Alternate Prediction: Invictus