Sneaking a peek at Oscar

A few months ago, I made a few predictions about four films and their chances at Oscar. I'm happy to report that all four of the films in that month's article are indeed nominated for Academy Awards-but I must admit they're not all in the Best Picture category!

8 Mile, the Eminem pseudo-biopic, did debut at #1, and the track "Lose Yourself" has gotten itself nominated for both a Grammy and an Oscar.

Lord of the Rings, the second in the LOTR trilogy, opened at #1 as promised, and is nominated for Best Picture.

Gangs of New York has done extremely well with Oscar, and is nominated for Best Director (Francis Ford Coppola), Best Song ("The Hands that Built America", U2), Best Actor (Daniel Day Lewis), Best Picture, and many more.

Catch Me if You Can did reasonably well at the box office, but only appears on the nominee list for Best Score.

Teaching me to trust myself, Chicago, my personal sentimental favorite, is extremely popular with Oscar voters, and is the most nominated this year. Pretty great for a little musical. Rounding out the Best Picture nominations are The Hours and The Pianist, interestingly directed by Roman Polanski, who fled the US years ago.

My pick for Best Picture? A tossup between The Hours and Chicago.

The Academy likes to honor dramas here, and the trio of A-list actresses in The Hours, in addition to the great story, is almost a shoo-in. Meryl Streep, at this point, is surely the most nominated actress in history (this year nominated for Best Supporting Actress) and Julianne Moore (up for Best Supporting Actress in this picture-but Best Actress for Far from Heaven) give truly stirring performances. The Best Actress nod goes to Nicole Kidman for putting on that fake nose and playing Virginia Woolf-I'll even go out on a limb here and say that she wins the Oscar.

But, Chicago has so much of what audiences go to the movies to see. It picked up on the success of Moulin Rouge before it, and is based on a Tony winning musical, so it is not surprising to see a few nominations. What really propels it to the top, as in most films, are its stars. The cast is phenomenal (and who knew any of them could sing!), and all of the female principles are thereby Oscar nominated, as are one of the few men in the cast (John C. Reilly as the jilted husband). It is a delightful romp and might just give The Hours a run for its money. Or, it's gold statuette.

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