Forecasting Oscar’s Decisions: Final 2012 Predictions

And it all comes down to this. The 2011 movie season has but only two days left, and on Sunday night the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hold a little meeting and hand out participation ribbons to anybody who makes a film. I’m kidding, of course; the film has to be at least 40 minutes long.

Oscar statues will be handed out to a couple dozen well deserving filmmakers, and there shouldn’t be too many surprises. The Artist has Best Picture wrapped up, as well as a number of other categories that it received nominations in. The Descendants and Hugo did their best to add some drama to the race, but when The Artist was the recipient of a whopping 10 nominations, the contest came to a close. And, unfortunately, that’s how it is with most of the other major categories as well. If The Artist is sweeping early, you can expect Director and Editing to be sealed up as well. There are only three main categories that are still “up in the air” right now: Original Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress.

The Artist is nominated for Screenplay, but Midnight in Paris has taken a good number of the precursors, and is thought to be Allen’s best in quite some time. It’ll be a tight race, but I have to side with Allen on this one. For Best Actor, Jean Dujardin is the heavy favorite, but George Clooney has been right on his heels. Clooney really doesn’t stand much of a chance, but he is Hollywood’s brightest star and you can never count him out. And lastly, the Best Actress race is pretty wide open. Viola Davis is the current favorite, but her and Streep have been neck and neck the entire race, and I can’t honestly say that the other three nominees have no shot at winning.

Enough jibber-jabber from me. Onto what you all came here for, my predictions for Sunday night:

Best Picture- The Artist

Best Director- Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Best Actor- Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Best Supporting Actor- Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Actress- Viola Davis, The Help

Best Supporting Actress- Octavia Spencer, The Help

Best Adapted Screenplay- The Descendants

Best Original Screenplay- Midnight in Paris

Best Editing- The Artist

Best Cinematography- The Tree of Life

Best Art Direction- Hugo

Best Costume Design- W.E.

Best Makeup- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Best Music, Original Score- The Artist

Best Music, Original Song- “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets

Best Sound Editing- Hugo

Best Sound Mixing- Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Best Visual Effects- Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Best Animated Feature- Rango

Best Documentary Feature- Hell and Back Again

Best Foreign Language Film- A Separation, Iran

And there you have it. Do you agree? What are your predictions for this weekend?