(Updated 2/19/10, 12:51p) Saturday, the Writers Guild of America and the Motion Picture Sound Editors will announce the winners of their 2009 prizes. Below are our best attempts to predict these awards:

Writers Guild of America

Original Screenplay

Avatar
(500) Days of Summer (Tripp)
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker (Wesley, Peter, Wes)
A Serious Man

Adapted Screenplay

Crazy Heart
Julie & Julia
Precious
Star Trek
Up in the Air (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Wes)

Predictions Commentary

Wesley Lovell
Original Screenplay: Although I want to say (500) Days of Summer will pick up this award, the fact that it lost to The Hangover with the American Cinema Editors suggests that despite it being one of the best, it still can’t overcome mediocrity. And since The Hurt Locker is the biggest Best Picture winner in this race, I can easily see it winning. And with 7 times in 20 years this winner not carrying through to Oscar, it makes a lot of sense if it were to win here and then at the Oscars to pad Hurt Locker’s Totals.
Adapted Screenplay: A win by any other entry seriously damages the film’s chance at the Oscar, but I don’t see any reason for them not to pick Jason Reitman’s films likely only eventual Oscar winner, thus pushing forward the trend of 16 of 20 Oscar winners successfully predicted.

Peter J. Patrick
Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker has momentum and its complex, thought-provoking original screenplay is one of its strongest assets. With its only Oscar competition, Inglourious Basterds, out of the running, it should sail to victory.
Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air has been winning everything else, there’s no reason to doubt it will repeat here.

Tripp Burton
Original Screenplay: This is an interesting category, especially because the WGA is missing so many Oscar nominees with a real shot at winning. I see the writers going here for the originality of (500) Days of Summer over the more director-centered The Hurt Locker. If The Hurt Locker takes this one, it gains major momentum for the Oscars, but losing here shouldn’t hurt it too much.
Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air seems to be the most honored screenplay of the year, and that should carry over here. The other four should be happy with their nominations.

Motion Picture Sound Editors

Sound Editing/Sound Effects & Foley/Feature Film

2012
Avatar (Wesley, Tripp, Wes)
The Hurt Locker (Peter)
Inglorious Basterds
Push
Star Trek
Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen
Watchmen

Sound Editing/Dialogue & ADR/Feature Film

(500) Days of Summer
Avatar (Wes)
G.I. Joe
The Hurt Locker (Wesley)
Inglorious Basterds (Peter)
A Serious Man
Star Trek
The Stoning of Soraya M.

Sound Editing/Animated Film

9
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Monsters vs. Aliens
The Princess and the Frog
Up (Wesley, Peter, Wes)

Sound Editing/Foreign Film

An Education
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Coco avant Chanel
District 9 (Wesley, Peter, Wes)
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Red Cliff

Sound Editing/Music/Feature Film

2012
(500) Days of Summer
An Education
Avatar (Wes)
The Informant (Wesley, Peter)
It’s Complicated
Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek

Sound Editing/Music/Musical

Crazy Heart (Peter)
Every Little Step
Nine (Wesley)
This Is It (Wes)

Predictions Commentary

Wesley Lovell
Sound Editing/Sound Effects & Foley/Feature Film: I can’t imagine this group not going for the biggest blockbuster of the year for this trophy. They love the mixes and with the Oscar very likely to follow this result, I think Avatar takes it.
Sound Editing/Dialogue & ADR/Feature Film: The art of conversation. Although The Hurt Locker has the least amount of regular conversation, with it losing the top prize to Avatar, I can see this group throwing The Hurt Locker a prize here to show they liked it.
Sound Editing/Animated Film: This category generally belongs to Pixar and with Up the only Oscar nominee of the bunch, I can easily see it winning.
Sound Editing/Foreign Film: With it being the only science fiction film in the list and having well regarded sound effects and being this being the only category it’s eligible in, I think they’ll pick District 9.
Sound Editing/Music/Feature Film: The Informant! has the best score usage of all of these, but this isn’t a score award, but how it’s mixed with the film, which Informant does well. However, I could see them misguidedly giving this to Avatar or Star Trek, big budget blockbusters with competitive original scores.
Sound Editing/Music/Musical: Two documentaries seem ill suited for this category even if they blend live recorded music with soundtrack work, but feature films are obviously more likely to fare well in this category. Crazy Heart is about music, which gives the film the edge, but Nine is a musical, which means there is more music to go around. It will be a close race with either film likely to win, but I give the edge to Nine.

Peter J. Patrick
Sound Editing/Sound Effects & Foley/Feature Film: I think they’ll go with the very real and very frightening sounds of The Hurt Locker.
Sound Editing/Dialogue & ADR/Feature Film: I think they’ll throw Tarantino’s film a bone here.
Sound Editing/Animated Film: The glorious sounds of Up trump the competition.
Sound Editing/Foreign Film: I think District 9 is the one to beat here.
Sound Editing/Music/Feature Film: I have no idea, really, but the musical background of The Informant! is nicely played. It would be nice to see this underrated film win something.
Sound Editing/Music/Musical: I actually think the sound of Nine was better edited, but the overall film is so bad I hate to see it win anything so I’m predicting an upset with Crazy Heart the likeliest recipient thereof.

Tripp Burton
Sound Editing/Sound Effects & Foley/Feature Film: In the on-going battle over the technical awards, I see the sound editors going for Avatar over The Hurt Locker. It has more sound, involved a lot more invention of sound (I imagine), and is the larger film with the larger sound crew. Either one has a good shot, though.