Here’s what we know for sure: Brad and Angie will be there. And so will Jerry Lewis.
When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences celebrates its 81st annual awards presentation Sunday night on ABC, both halves of Hollywood’s most gorgeous prom couple are nominees and France’s favorite clown will be accepting the honorary Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
What’s in question, though, is who will take home the cute, naked golden boy — and we aren’t referring to this year’s host, Hugh Jackman!
Anyway, here are our best Oscar predictions and our own preferences.
Best picture
Will win: “Slumdog Millionaire” Should win: “Milk”
The momentum lately has been in favor of a no-star drama about a hapless Indian boy whose suffering leads to a game-show windfall. Though “Slumdog” isn’t the sort of grand epic Oscar often prefers, good karma should reign for its unique setting and crowd-pleasing ending. Since the true best picture of 2008, “WALL-E,” wasn’t included here, I’d vote for the moving and timely biopic of assassinated 1970s activist Harvey Milk. It compels both as personal narrative and as political chronicle.
Best animated feature
Will win: “WALL-E” Should win: “WALL-E”
It’s a lock. The other two action-oriented cartoons about cute animals, “Bolt” and “Kung Fu Panda,” don’t even come close. The insiders who decide the winners like pictures that are original yet broadly entertaining, critically acclaimed yet wildly successful at the worldwide box office. That’s “WALL-E.” If you ask me — and you don’t have to, because I’m paid to tell you — Pixar’s brilliant, genre-defying love story and cautionary tale didn’t just serve up the best animation of the year, it was also the most simultaneously heartrending, jocular and provocative movie of the year. But cartoons don’t get much love in the best-picture category. So this prize will have to do for the delightful little robot from Earth’s wasted future.
Best actor
Will win: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler” Should win: Sean Penn, “Milk”
The contrite and still very talented Rourke is in the midst of an incredible comeback after much more than a decade in the showbiz wilderness. It may be an irresistible storyline for Academy voters, but that really shouldn’t figure into it. Rourke plays a poignant variation on himself as a has-been in “Wrestler.” Meanwhile, the genius Penn steps completely out of his intense dramatic-actor’s comfort zone as the sweet, resolute martyr in “Milk.” He’s never been so charming or self-effacing on-screen.
Best actress
Will win: Kate Winslet, “The Reader” Should win: Winslet
Early critics’ and guild contests had put Winslet’s turn in “Revolutionary Road” in this category instead. But since this is the Brit’s only chance to win and she never has — even after seven nominations at her young age — voters will probably pick her instead of Oscar perennial Meryl Streep. Anne Hathaway’s lucky to be nominated (probably out of sympathy for having a felonious ex-boyfriend in real life). Melissa Leo and Angelina Jolie were emotionally devastating but not multifaceted enough to compete with the intricate characterizations of Streep and Winslet.
Best supporting actor
Will win: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight” Should win: Ledger
Bet the farm. It’s not only a way for the members of the Academy to honor Ledger’s body of work, they also get to acknowledge “The Dark Knight” after it was unexpectedly left out of the best-picture contest. Robert Downey Jr. was funny but not exceptional. An enigmatic Philip Seymour Hoffman, a desolate Josh Brolin and a raw Michael Shannon were each so bold. But the Aussie’s frightening and charismatic portrayal of a villainous madman helped elevate a comic book-based blockbuster into something more akin to motion-picture art.
Best supporting actress
Will win: Viola Davis, “Doubt” Should win: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
This may be the hardest category to predict. Marisa Tomei won’t get it; many still can’t forgive her for beating out Vanessa Redgrave in 1993. The others have a shot. But even though Davis is only on-screen for 12 minutes as an overwhelmed mother, her devastating dialogue with Streep brings down the house. Cruz has been a flat bore in some of her commercial Hollywood outings. But as Woody Allen’s muse, playing a wild-eyed ex-wife, her sparkling energy heightened the wordy romantic comedy.
