Oscar handicapping

[teko]

Here's my utterly uneducated guesses on the Oscar winners. I've seen a pitiful few of these films, so these aren't necessarily my personal favorites; mostly, they're a collection of friends' strong opinions, public opinion, and the usual Oscar politics.

In general, I think Slumdog Millionaire is the big winner tonight, taking all the big "filmmaking" categories, as well as Best Score -- though I don't think it'll get best song; its two nominations cancel each other out in that category. Since it's shut out of most of the major categories, Benjamin Button will be rewarded with most of the technical & artistic awards. Wall-E -- still the best-reviewed movie of the year -- will get best animated film and the two sound awards for Ben Burtt's work, but they'll pass it over for best screenplay and give that to Milk for its one award of the night.

Best Actor: Mickey Rourke
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, durr
Best Actress: Meryl Streep
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Directing: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Animated Film: Wall-E
Art Direction: Benjamin Button
Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Costumes: Benjamin Button
Documentary: Man On Wire
Editing: Slumdog
Foreign Film: Waltz with Bashir
Makeup: Benjamin Button
Score: Slumdog
Song: "Down to Earth"
Animated Short: Presto
Live Action Short: The Pig
Sound Editing & Sound Mixing: Wall-E
Visual Effects: Dark Knight
Adapted Screenplay: Frost/Nixon
Original Screenplay: Milk