As we get closer to the Oscar nominations (Tuesday, January 25, 2011), we’re going to try to continuously update our predictions. Because of the vast array of categories, we’ll only share our updated predictions each week based on which guild or category-based precursors have come out during the week.

This week we had another combination of precursors: Directors Guild of America, American Cinema Editors, American Society of Cinematographers and Visual Effects Society. Also, the Academy released the 7 finalists for the Makeup Oscar. So, today we bring you our updated predictions in the following categories: Best Director, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects. Next week, we’ll have another new group of categories and we’ll also post our final predictions before the nominations the following Tuesday.

So, here goes this week’s update:

KEY:

BEST DIRECTOR

• Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan (New)(Ja) (S) (D) (N)
• Danny Boyle – 127 Hours (J) (S)
• David Fincher – The Social Network (S) (S) (S) (O)
• Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech (Oc) (O) (S) (Oc)
• Christopher Nolan – Inception (D) (O)
• David O. Russell – The Fighter (Oc) (J) (N) (New)(Ja)

BEST EDITING

• Alice in Wonderland (New)(O)
• Black Swan (New)(O) (New) (New)(O)
• The Fighter (New)(O) (New) (New)(O) (New)(O)
• Inception (New)(O) (New) (New)(O) (New)(O)
• The King’s Speech (New)(O) (New) (New)(O)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (New)(O)
• The Social Network (New)(O) (New) (New)(O) (New)(O)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• 127 Hours (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O)
• Black Swan (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O)
• I Am Love (New)(O)
• Inception (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O)
• The King’s Speech (New)(O)
• Shutter Island (New)(O)
• The Social Network (New)(O) (New)(O)
• True Grit (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O)

BEST MAKEUP

• Alice in Wonderland (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O)
• The Fighter (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O)
• True Grit (New)(O) (New)(O) (New)(O)
• The Wolfman (New)(O) (New)(O)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• Alice in Wonderland (D) (D) (D) (Ja)
• Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (D) (New)(Ja) (D) (Ja)
• Inception (D) (D) (D) (Ja)
• Iron Man 2 (Ja)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Ja) (Ja) (D)
• TRON Legacy (D) (D) (D) (Ja)