[edit]

Bold Text = What I think will win
Italic Text = What I think should win

Best Picture

• Avatar
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

Best Actor – Leading

• Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
• George Clooney – Up in the Air
• Colin Firth – A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman – Invictus
• Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Best Actress – Leading

• Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren – The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan – An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
• Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Best Actor – Supporting

• Matt Damon – Invictus
• Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress – Supporting

• Penelope Cruz – Nine
• Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
• Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
• Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
• Mo’Nique – Precious

Best Director

• Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron – Avatar
• Lee Daniels – Precious
• Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Best Original Screenplay

• The Hurt Locker – Mark Boal
• Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino
• The Messenger – Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman
• A Serious Man – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
• Up – Bop Peterson, Pete Docter, Thomas McCarthy

Best Adapted Screenplay

• District 9 – Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
• An Education – Nick Hornby
• In the Loop – Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
• Precious – Geoffrey Fletcher
• Up in the Air – Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

Best Cinematography

• Avatar – Mauro Fiore
• The White Ribbon – Christian Berger
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Bruno Delbonnel
• The Hurt Locker – Barry Ackroyd
• Inglourious Basterds – Robert Richardson

Best Editing

• Avatar – Stephen E. Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron
• District 9 – Julian Clarke
• The Hurt Locker – Bob Murawski, Chris Innis
• Inglourious Basterds – Sally Menke
• Precious – Joe Klotz

Best Art Direction

• Avatar – Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – David Warren, Anastasia Masaro, Caroline Smith
• Nine – John Myhre, Gordon Sim
• Sherlock Holmes – Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
• The Young Victoria – Patrice Vermette, Maggie Gray

Best Costume Design

• Bright Star
• Coco Before Chanel
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• Nine
• The Young Victoria

Best Makeup

• Il Divo
• Star Trek
• The Young Victoria

Best Original Score

• Avatar – James Horner
• Fantastic Mr. Fox – Alexandre Desplat
• The Hurt Locker – Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders
• Sherlock Holmes – Hans Zimmer
• Up – Michael Giacchino

Best Original Song

• Crazy Heart – “The Weary Kind”
• Paris 36 – “Loin de Paname”
• Nine – “Take It All”
• The Princess and the Frog – “Almost There”
• The Princess and the Frog – “Down in New Orleans”

Best Sound Mixing

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Star Trek
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Sound Editing

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Star Trek
• Up

Best Visual Effects

• Avatar
• District 9
• Star Trek

Best Animated Feature

• Coraline
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Princess and the Frog
• The Secret of Kells
• Up

Best Foreign Language Film

• Ajami (Israel)
• The White Ribbon (Germany)
• The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina)
• A Prophet (France)
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)

Best Documentary – Feature

• Burma VJ
• The Cove
• Food, Inc.
• The Most Dangerous Man in America
• Which Way Home

Top 25

1. Amelie
2. City of God
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. Lost in Translation
5. The Royal Tenenbaums
6. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
7. The Assassination of Jesse James
8. Y Tu Mama Tambien
9. Lord of the Rings (Trilogy)
10. Adaptation
11. Memento
12. Closer
13. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
14. Requiem for a Dream
15. The Motorcycle Diaries
16. Kill Bill
17. Punch-Drunk Love
18. Amores Perros
19. Shaun of the Dead
20. I Heart Huckabees
21. There Will Be Blood
22. Talk to Her
23. Let the Right One In
24. Almost Famous
25. Duck Season

Runner-Ups: The Life Aquatic, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Little Miss Sunshine, Oldboy, Minority Report, Sideways, About Schmidt, Bad Education, Batman Begins, A Serious Man, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Squid and the Whale, Brick, Finding Nemo, and Mystic River.

I am a bit obsessive when it comes to making lists. I enjoy making to-do lists, grocery lists, playlists, end-of-the-year lists, you name it. So since we’re about 3/4 the way thru 2009 I thought I would try to actually blog something and what else to blog about besides lists!!

MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2009

1. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective
2. Intuit by Ramona Falls
3. Embryonic by The Flaming Lips
4. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear
5. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
6. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
7. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix
8. Hospice by The Antlers
9. Wild Young Hearts by the Noisettes
10. Hold Time by M. Ward
11. Actor by St. Vincent

Honorable Mention: Fall Be Kind EP by Animal Collective (This five-track EP is actually stronger than some of these LPs!)
Personal Favorite: Wilco (the Album) by Wilco (While not as strong as some of these more innovative albums, Wilco is one of my favorite bands and I really enjoyed their latest endeavor.)

MY FAVORITE FILMS OF 2009

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Where the Wild Things Are
3. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
   
4. A Serious Man
5. Moon
6. The Road
   
7. District 9
8. World’s Greatest Dad
   
9. Star Trek
10. Paranormal Activity

Honorable Mention: 2012 (for being such an awesome piece of shit)
Guilty Pleasure of the Year: The Box (atrocious acting from Cameron Diaz, and semi-cheesy story, but I’m a huge Richard Kelly fan and I love his style. It was like a feature-length episode of The Twilight Zone complete with one of the best scores of the year from Arcade Fire.)

What albums/movies am I missing from my list? Do share. I will say it’s unlikely anything will knock Animal Collective off the top of my list, as I’m convinced MPP is not only the best album of the year but also one of the best of the decade. I know it’s been hyped so much that now it’s not cool to like it anymore, but I just can’t help it. As far as movies go…there’s still a lot I have to see (such as An Education, The Road, A Serious Man, Avatar, etc.). So that list will likely change, but Inglourious Basterds will be hard to beat. I just loved it.

Do you have a short film collecting dust on the shelf?  One you’ve shot in the past few years?

We’re less than two weeks away from the submission cut off so here’s 5 simple reasons why, if you’re a filmmaker in SW Missouri, you should submit to the Springfield Little Film Festival:

1. It’s a chance to have your work shown off to the public at a great venue.
2. Whether you’re an entrant, or a finalist, or a winner, it looks good on your job or graduate school application.
3. It’s for a good cause – helping future film students achieve their dreams.
4. It’s a chance to share your work with the community.
5. Two words: after party.

So what are you waiting for?  Pull out that film and submit it before the June 30th deadline!

(via Diana Botsford)