The Oscar list is out!

The fix is in! I mean, stop the presses! I mean, the Oscar list for 2007 is out! This is the day I've been waiting for since at least mid-September, when I finally got around to seeing The Last King of Scotland at the E Street Cinema, for I knew walking out of that theater that I wanted Forest Whitaker to win the Oscar.

Looking back at last year's Oscars, with the exception of Crash taking Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain, the winners last year were shockingly predictable, and I was hoping that this year's Oscar contenders would be exciting and filled with surprises. So far, I'm pleased to say that's the case!

Best Picture: Some of these nominees were expected, though some caught me by surprise. Having seen Babel, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but didn't consider it Best Picture material per se. Mind you, I'm not complaining about its nomination; I just didn't expect it to be a nominee. The Departed, I'm sure by default, got a nomination because it's a blockbuster Scorsese picture. I haven't seen it yet, but am eager to. Colby is the only person I know to have seen it, so for the moment it's gotten one endorsement. The nomination of Little Miss Sunshine reminds me of Sideways in 2004—the lone comedy among serious dramas. Letters from Iwo Jima surprised me, because I thought Flags of our Fathers would get nominated. Having Clint Eastwood get a Best Picture nomination is, as Will so aptly says, as surprising as the sun coming up in the east, but my guess would have been Eastwood's other WWII drama rather than Letters. Prediction notwithstanding, I can't say I have a preference for any of the Best Picture nominees over another.

Prediction: Babel

Best Actor: Give Forest Whitaker the Oscar . . . now!!! Anything less than that is inhuman, because Forest was downright terrifying in The Last King of Scotland, and the performance he gave as the paranoid and overpowering Idi Amin is unforgettable, to say the least. Though I fear that Peter O'Toole will be viewed as the sentimental favorite, and that the Academy will award him the Oscar gold because he hasn't received one before. That would really upset me, because if you're going to honor a man for a lifetime film career, he should be given an Honorary Oscar like the one Robert Altman and Sidney Lumet received in recent years. Because that's what a Best Actor Oscar for O'Toole would be—a lifetime achievement award, whereas Forest Whitaker should be awarded for his powerhouse performance. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Forest. Anyway, now that I'm done with that high-horse, I'm pleased that Will Smith got nominated for The Pursuit of Happiness. I could tell right away from the trailers that he was going to be spectacular, and I'm growing more and more pleased with him as an actor each day. I almost hate to admit this, but I'm feeling the same about Leonardo DiCaprio. I used to despise him for being the pretty-boy from Titanic, but after his turn in The Aviator, I slowly became impressed by his acting abilities.

Prediction/hope: Forest Whitaker (and if Peter O'Toole wins, I'm going to be supremely pissed off)

Best Actress: I'll get this out of my system now—I can't stand Meryl Streep as an actress!!! I think she's a hack who couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. And I refuse to see Devil Wears Prada because the character she plays hits a little too close to home for me. Helen Mirren has received quite a lot of buzz for The Queen, though I myself have yet to see it, or any of the other films with nominated actresses.

Prediction: Helen Mirren (though as long as Meryl Streep doesn't win, I'll be happy)

Best Supporting Actor: Haven't seen any of these films, but I'm very pleased that Edde Murphy got nominated. His body of work started out great in the '80s, but I think he lost focus during the '90s, and his focus on cheesy family movies has been a waste of his superb acting abilities (to all you Shrek fans out there, I'm sorry). But with Dreamgirls, I'm very pleased to see him return to serious roles as an actor. I don't have any immediate plans to see Dreamgirls just yet, but I'd see it for Eddie Murphy. The only other nomination that surprises me here is Mark Wahlberg. When I think of Mark Wahlberg, I usually think of Boogie Nights, The Perfect Storm, or The Truth About Charlie—none of which are anything to write home about (in fact, he annoyed the hell out of me in Boogie Nights). So here's another reason for me to see The Departed: to see for myself how good a performance Mark Wahlberg gives.

Prediction: Eddie Murphy

Best Supporting Actress: I said it in my review of Babel, and I'll say it again—give Rinko Kikuchi the Oscar!!! Her pain was so real that you literally feel it yourself, and the performance she gave was nothing short of extraordinary. Babel's other nominee, Adriana Barraza, I thought she was good but not really Oscar-worthy. The nomination of Abigail Breslin doesn't entirely surprise me, but the fact that a little girl is getting a nomination makes me wonder if she'll become the sentimental favorite—if the voters will see her and go, "Awwwww, isn't she cute! Let's give her the award." This genuinely concerns me. Granted, I may feel differently after seeing her performance in Little Miss Sunshine, but my hope is that when George Clooney opens the envelope, the name he reads is the one predicted below.

Prediction/hope: Rinko Kikuchi

Best Director: Okay, this is where I'm divided, because I really want Martin Scorsese to win an Oscar . . . but I feel the clear winner for this category is Alejandro González Iñárritu. I see that Oscar golden boy Clint Eastwood has been nominated (again), and to this day it still angers me that he stole won the directing and Best Picture Oscars for Million Dollar Baby over Scorsese's epic The Aviator. The nomination of Paul Greengrass for United 93 was unexpected, though.

Prediction: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Hope: Martin Scorsese (though I'll be happy if either one gets the award; as long as it's not Eastwood again)

Best Musical Score: I'm genuinely disappointed that The Fountain didn't receive a nomination here. I felt that its soundtrack was heartbreaking and perfectly fitting to the mood of the film, superbly guiding the viewer through the story.

No prediction

Best Visual Effects: Again, disappointment that The Fountain didn't get nominated. The effects in the nebula Xibalba were extraordinary, so why not award its achievement?

No prediction

Best Documentary Feature: Somehow I knew that Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth would get a nomination. With the former VP energized by the great public disapproval of the current administration, he gains great credibility in telling us about global warming—especially since the U.S. has backed out of the Kyoto Protocol. I haven't seen any trailers for Iraq in Fragments, but for the same reasons as before, I'm not surprised to see this on the nominees list. I did, however, see the trailers for Jesus Camp—and that one scared the hell out of me! (No pun intended.)

Prediction: An Inconvenient Truth

I must say, I'm pretty pleased with this year's Oscar list. In the final analysis, these are the results I'm crossing my fingers for:

• Forest Whitaker winning Best Actor for The Last King of Scotland
• Rinko Kichuki winning Best Supporting Actress for Babel
• Clint Eastwood not winning Best Director
• Meryl Streep not winning Best Actress
• If Martin Scorsese finally wins a Best Director statue, I'll be ecstatic; but if he loses to Alejandro González Iñárritu, I won't be too terribly disappointed

So hopefully this will prove an exciting year for the Academy, and now we wait for February 25 with bated breath to know the winners. As I stated before, on Oscar night, I plan to do some live-blogging with the announcement of each winner, so stay tuned!