And The Oscar Nominations Might Go To...

In less than 8 hours, the nominations for the 79th Academy Awards will be announced. Some will feel the glory of adding "Academy Award Nominee" to the front of their names as they scroll across the movie screen, while others will simply come up short...I was pulling for you Sacha Baron Cohen but, unfortunately, I can't vote!

Here are my official picks for the main awards categories (I'm thinking you probably don't care what I think about the Best Makeup category so much...if you do, we'll talk):

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BEST PICTURE
Babel
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine
The Departed
The Queen

Alternate: United 93


BEST DIRECTOR

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Bill Condon, Dreamgirls
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Stephen Frears, The Queen

Alternate: Paul Greengrass, United 93


BEST ACTOR
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness

Alternate: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat


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

Alternate: Beyonce Knowles, Dreamgirls


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Brad Pitt, Babel
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Michael Sheen, The Queen

Alternate: Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond


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

Alternate: Emily Blunt, Devil Wears Prada


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Babel
Little Miss Sunshine
Stranger Than Fiction
The Queen
United 93

Alternate: Volver


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Little Children
Notes on a Scandal
Thank You For Smoking
The Departed
The Devil Wears Prada

Alternate: Dreamgirls


BEST ANIMATED FILM
Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Alternate: Flushed Away


BEST DOCUMENTARY
An Inconvenient Truth
Deliver Us From Evil
Iraq In Fragments
Jesus Camp
Shut Up & Sing

Alternates: The War Tapes


BEST FOREIGN FILM
Days of Glory, Algeria
Pan's Labyrinth, Mexico
The Lives of Others, Germany
Volver, Spain
Water, Canada

Alternate: Black Book, Netherlands
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