12th Annual Oscar Nomination Picks (Mackenzie's To Follow)

Mac and I started doing this literally in 1996, and back then it was a helluva lot more challenging because there weren't 5,983 websites devoted to doing the same thing. The highlight for me was last year, picking all of the winners in our selected categories. Mac's enthusiasm has waned on this project, but it's tradition, and you don't fuck with tradition, and I'm sure he's just pissed off that I bet him $20 a while back that Sacha Baron Cohen would get a nomination, and it looks like a lot of folks agree with me. It was an incredibly shitty year for movies. Martin Scorsese looks like he's finally going to win an Oscar for one of his least stellar flicks. Eddie Murphy's finally going to be honored, but it looks like his old James Brown "Too Hot in the Hot Tub" impersonation to me. So here's what things will look like at 5:33am West Coast Time tomorrow:

Picture:
Babel
The Departed
Little Miss Sunshine
Dreamgirls
The Queen
(NOTE: Mackenzie was disappointed in The Departed, and there's no way now that I can watch this Little Miss Sunshine thing and think it's funnier than Borat).

Director:
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, “Babel”
Martin Scorsese, “The Departed”
Stephen Frears, “The Queen”
Bill Condon, “Dreamgirls”
Robert Altman, "A Prairie Home Companion"
(Don't think Altman's death late last year isn't going to push him into this mix, it's totally going to, plus those Sunshine people can't be up for everything).

Actor:
Sacha Baron Cohen, “Borat”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Departed”
Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”
Peter O’ Toole, “Venus”
Ryan Gosling, "Half Nelson"
(Wouldn't it be great if this really happened for Cohen and he actually attended the ceremony in full Borat character? This stuffy thing needs an Andy Kauffman-esque moment. And don't bring that little hot Aussie he's engaged to in real life, bring the girl who played his sister the hooker from the movie).

Actress:
Kate Winslet, “Little Children”
Judi Dench, “Notes on a Scandal”
Penelope Cruz, “Volver”
Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada”
Helen Mirren, “The Queen”
(Seriously, everybody has this exact same lineup. Nobody even has a 6th person to come out of left field. Hopefully somebody else can sneak in and cause a ruckus).

Best Supporting Actor:
Jack Nicholson, “The Departed”
Brad Pitt, "Babel"
Alan Arkin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”
Djimon Hounsou, “Blood Diamond”
(Nicholson and Streep can be in any film that gets half-assed raves and still get nominations. Damn I'd like to see Marky Mark get in here though).

Best Supporting Actress:
Cate Blanchett, “Notes on a Scandal”
Adrianna Barrazza, “Babel”
Rinko Kinkuchi, “Babel”
Toni Collette, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”
(I'll take names of two actresses who's names I'll never hear again in a movie I'll never see for $200 please).

Best Original Screenplay:
Babel
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Volver
Pan’s Labyrinth
(Larry David: "Ehhhh.")

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Borat
Thank You For Smoking
The Departed
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal
("Thank You For Smoking" is not a documentary on the Life of Mackenzie. And if he doesn't have his picks in tonite, I get the steak dinner by default.)