Hey Kids - Funtime Oscar Picks 2012!

So everybody is saying THE ARTIST will win Best Picture at the 84th Academy Awards this Sunday night.

I'm going with that too, but not to just go with the flow - it really feels like it's going to win.

Unfortunately I don't have that feeling with most of my other predictions, some of which I are personal preferences instead of calculated guesses (*cough* Michelle Williams). As always I'm really hoping there will be some surprises (*cough* Gary Oldman).

Here's my picks:

1. BEST PICTURE: THE ARTIST

2. BEST DIRECTOR: Michel Hazanavicius (THE ARTIST)

3. BEST ACTOR: George Clooney (THE DESCENDANTS)

4. BEST ACTRESS: Michelle Williams (MY WEEK WITH MARILYN)

5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Plummer (THE BEGINNERS)

6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Octavia Spencer (THE HELP)

And the rest:

7. ART DIRECTION: HUGO (Dante Ferretti)

8. CINEMATOGRAPHY: THE TREE OF LIFE (Emmanuel Lubezki)

9. COSTUME DESIGN: THE ARTIST (Mark Bridges)

10. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY

11. DOCUMENTARY SHORT: THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM

12. FILM EDITING: HUGO (Thelma Schoonmaker)

13. MAKEUP: THE IRON LADY (Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland)

14. VISUAL EFFECTS: RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, and Daniel Barrett)

15. ORIGINAL SCORE: THE ARTIST (Ludovic Bource)

16. ORIGINAL SONG: “Man or Muppet” (Bret McKenzie) (THE MUPPETS)

17. ANIMATED SHORT: THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE

18. LIVE ACTION SHORT: RAJU

19. SOUND EDITING: WAR HORSE (Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom)

20. SOUND MIXING: HUGO (Tom Fleischman and John Midgley)

21. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (Woody Allen)

22. ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: THE DESCENDANTS (Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash)

23. ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: RANGO

24. BEST FOREIGN FILM: A SEPARATION

We'll see how many I get wrong on Sunday night.

More later...