And The Oscar Nominations Actually Go To...

Some categories were very predictable (I'm looking at you Best Actress categories); some categories had an element of surprise (Mark Walhberg instead of Jack Nicholson for Best Actor in The Departed); some categories had an element of confusion (Best Actor nominee Leonardo DiCaprio for...Blood Diamond?); some categories made me simply angry (let's take a moment to process the impact of a world where movies like Click and Poseidon receive Oscar nominations); and, finally, some categories had surprises that made me giddy with joy, namely a Best Picture/Best Director snub for Dreamgirls...the movie, instead, deserves the honor of Most Overrated Film of 2006.

Here are the academy award nominees for the main categories that I previously posted predictions. I put an asterisk next to the nominees that I correctly predicted...43/53 correctly predicted, not too shabby.

____________________________________________________

BEST PICTURE (4/5)
Babel*
The Departed*
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine*
The Queen*


BEST DIRECTOR (5/5)
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel*
Martin Scorsese, The Departed*
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima*
Stephen Frears, The Queen*
Paul Greengrass, United 93*


BEST ACTOR (4/5)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson*
Peter O'Toole, Venus*
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness*
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland*


BEST ACTRESS (5/5)
Penelope Cruz, Volver*
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal*
Helen Mirren, The Queen*
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada*
Kate Winslet, Little Children*


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (3/5)
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine*
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond*
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls*
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (5/5)
Adriana Barraza, Babel*
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal*
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine*
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls*
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel*


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (3/5)
Babel*
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine*
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen*


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (3/5)
Borat
Children of Men
The Departed*
Little Children*
Notes on a Scandal*


BEST ANIMATED FILM (3/3)
Cars*
Happy Feet*
Monster House*


BEST DOCUMENTARY (4/5)
Deliver Us From Evil*
An Inconvenient Truth*
Iraq in Fragments*
Jesus Camp*
My Country, My Country


BEST FOREIGN FILM (4/5)
After the Wedding, Denmark
Days of Glory, Algeria*
The Lives of Others, Germany*
Pan's Labyrinth, Mexico*
Water, Canada*
____________________________________________________