Best Animated Feature Will win: "Cars" Should win: I didn't get to see the other nominees. |
| Best Cinematography Will win: "Children of Men" Should win: "Children of Men" If only for the car scene; steady cam had never felt so unsettling and "on the spot". |
| Best Foreign Language Film Will win: "The Lives of Others" Should win: "Volver" which wasn't even nominated! "Pan's Labyrinth" is the one in everyone's mouth, but despite its amount of nominations in other categories it's got the genre bias working against it. It didn't work for "Amélie" which was less fantastic, Oscar history says it shouldn't for "Pan's" either. Then again, they could award it just to show this is the year of the "Three Amigos" and one of them not getting an Oscar could spark cock fights later on. |
| Best Documentary Feature Will win: "An Inconvenient Truth" Should win: Have only seen one With Democrats ruling the House, the Academy wouldn't look good if they awarded anyone else in this category. Besides, it was quite an entertaining film and it became a cultural phenomenon, very much like the cute penguins from last year. |
| Best Editing Will win: "Babel" Should win: "The Departed" The Academy usually thinks the most cuts in this category means the best edited film, which is why the sad mess of "Babel" will overcome the splendid work in "The Departed" and "Children of Men". |
| Best Art Direction Will win: "Pan's Labyrinth" Should win: "Pan's Labyrinth" The sets in this film are stunning, mostly because they belong in an imaginary place, which means that the art direction from "Dreamgirls" which recreates a whole era of American history could easily upset. |
| Best Costume Design Will win: "Dreamgirls" Should win: "The Devil Wears Prada" In a way the costumes from "Dreamgirls" encompass the diva feeling of all the other nominees in the category, even the frumpy robes from "the Queen". |
| Best Makeup Will win: "Pan's Labyrinth" Should win: "Pan's Labyrinth" Takes mythical creatures and transforms them into beings that story books never prepared us for. Best Visual Effects Will win: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" Should win: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" The wave in "Poseidon" and Brandon Routh's unmovable hair in "Superman Returns" should present no competition for the creepy Davy Jones from the Disney sequel. Best Sound Mixing Will win: "Dreamgirls" Should win: "Dreamgirls" Despite the fact that the Academy reduces this category to "what film is the loudest", musicals often win here, in any other case it will go to "Flags of Our Fathers". Best Sound Editing Will win: "Letters from Iwo Jima" Should win: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" Seeing that Eastwood's war epics don't look likely to win in the big categories, this award will be enough to recognize them both at once. Best Animated Short Will win: "The Little Matchgirl" Best Live Action Short Will win: "West Bank Story" Best Documentary Short Will win: "The Blood of Yingzhou" Main Categories |
| Best Original Score Will win: "The Queen" Should win: "The Queen", "Pan's Labyrinth" The Academy has been mysteriously snubbing Alexander Desplat for years in a row, while he's been delivering some of the most innovative scores for recent films. That he finally got nominated should mean they're ready to make up for their irrationality even if the score to "The Queen" is in no way amongst his best. |