Scarecrow's Oscar Picks!

Alright!  It's that time of year again!  The Academy Awards, aka the Oscars, are coming up on February 27, but the nominations were announced today!  And, being the movie loving geek that I am, it's time for me to announce my Oscar picks!

But, in a proud tradition that goes all the way back to my early days in college radio, I don't give you my picks in the big categories like Best Director and Best Actor and all that.  No!  I only give you the picks in the categories that I've always had a near-perfect track record in predicting!  So, let's get to it!  The first category with my near-perfect track record is:

Best Visual Effects

The Nominees are:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
• Hereafter
• Inception
• Iron Man 2

Wow!  First the first time in at least 20 years, there were enough submissions that we can have five nominees in this category!  While Alice in Wonderland did a great job of creating another world, it was always the effects in Inception that had people talking.

Mark's Prediction:  Inception

Best Original Song

The Nominees are:

• "Coming Home" from Country Strong
•  "I See the Light" from Tangled
•  "If I Rise" from 127 Hours
•  "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3

You know, my near-perfect track record in this category began in the mid-1990s, when Disney's animated musicals dominated this category.  So, with that nagging at my mind, I want to pick the song from Tangled.  But again, Toy Story 3 is such a critical darling.  You know what, I'm going to go with my heart.

Mark's Prediction:  "I See the Light" from Tangled

Best Animated Film

The Nominees are:

• How to Train Your Dragon
• The Illusionist
•  Toy Story 3

This one's a tough call...I haven't seen How to Train Your Dragon, but many raved about how it's DreamWorks best.  The Illusionist has won a lot of critics awards, and the Academy might feel guilty about not giving the award to The Triplets of Belleville a few years back (The Illusionist is from the same folks.)  But, let's be honest, it's the incinerator scene in Toy Story 3 that had EVERYONE crying and everyone talking about for the rest of the summer.

Mark's Prediction:  Toy Story 3



And, let's do the biggest of the big ones for the sake of legitimacy.

Best Picture

The Nominees are:

• Black Swan
• The Fighter
•  Inception
•  The Kids are All Right
•  The King's Speech
•  127 Hours
•  The Social Network
•  Toy Story 3
•  True Grit
•  Winter's Bone

Still not a fan of this "10 nominations" concept that they introduced last year...it makes the list too long and cluttered.  It's like making football playoffs a best of 7 affair.  Anyway, when it comes to the Golden Globes and all the various association awards and critics awards, the two films that have been cleaing up are The King's Speech and The Social Network.  But, thing is, when you have two strong contenders like that, that's when you split the vote, allowing another to sneak up the middle.  The two strong "sneak up the middle" candidates seem to be True Grit and Black Swan.  I still think it's going to be either The King's Speech or The Social Network, and given that The King's Speech is more recent, I'm going to say....

Mark's Prediction:  The King's Speech

The Oscars are on February 27 this year.

Click here to go the Oscars website and see all the nominations.

Statistics show that 50% of bloggers have more than one blog.  Click here to go to my work blog, where I originally posted this.