First, I did a frosty 32/40 on my predictions for the big categories and a mostly unhumiliating 63/99 overall.
Some pithiness:
-We now know that being nominated for Best Director does not mean your directing was particularly meaningful. Jason Reitman? Seriously?
-Things that I am very pleased but only a little surprised by: Laura Linney for Best Actress, The Bourne Ultimatum for Best Editing, Away from Her for Adapted Screenplay, No Country and There Will Be Blood leading the nominations at eight each.
-Things that I am pleased AND surprised by: Ratatouille in both sound categories, Into the Wild being nearly shut-out,, Tommy Lee Jones for Best Actor, Across the Universe as an Oscar nominee.
-Things that I am not pleased by: Gilroy and Reitman in Best Director, Norbit as an Oscar nominee (the only one I haven’t seen outside of the docs, shorts and foreign films), Cate Blanchett for Best Actress.
-Things that just weird me out fiercely: Surf’s Up for Best Animated Feature, Enchanted with three nominated songs (I didn’t even know it had three songs), making it apparently the musical equal to Beauty and the Beast.
-Numbers: No Country & TWBB with 8
Atonement and Michael Clayton with 7
Ratatouille with 5
Juno and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly with 4
My quick predictions: No Country for Picture, Screenplay, Director, Supporting Actor; Daniel Day-Lewis for Actor; Julie Christie for Actress; Cate Blanchett for Supporting Actress; Juno for Original Screenplay.