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The nominees for Best Foreign-Language Film are Ajami, from Israel; The Milk of Sorrow, from Peru; A Prophet, from France; The Secret in Their Eyes, from Argentina; and The White Ribbon, from Germany. I'm going to leave off any analysis of which film should win here, because I've seen none of them. My guess (and this is strictly a guess, mind you) is that the film that will win is The White Ribbon, if only because its director, Michael Haneke is well-known in the States for such charmers as Funny Games and Cache. His work is well-respected enough throughout the industry to guarantee that he'll probably get the Oscar come Sunday, but this category is not my forte, unfortunately.

The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are Burma VJ, The Cove, Food, Inc., The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, and Which Way Home. Again, I'm going to forego any analysis about which film should win for the same reasons as with Best Foreign-Language Film. However, I can say with a bit more confidence that the movie that will win here is The Cove, a documentary about the inhumane and cruel treatment of dolphins in Asia. A big reason that this documentary will emerge victorious, aside from it being hailed as an excellent view into a shocking world, is that it has many famous people backing it up, including Ben Stiller. Nothing helps a movie like this more than Hollywood backing it up. Expect The Cove to win in this category.

I'm not going to touch on the various technical categories, and will only quickly say that, regarding the nominees for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, the likely winners will be Crazy Heart and Up, respectively. Crazy Heart's music is its second-most loved part, alongside Bridges' performance. The Weary Heart, as written by Ryan Bingham, will get the gold here. Up's score, by Lost composer Michael Giacchino, is not only memorable, but so integral to the plot (does that opening scene work nearly as well without as accomplished a score?) that the Academy will acknowledge its presence appropriately. Come back next week for a post-mortem on the ceremony, both on the winners and the show itself. Hopefully, I won't need that soapbox of mine, either. Happy viewing, everybody!

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