The Rest of the Races

I don’t specialize in the rest of these categories, so I’ll just take my usual guesses.

Cinematography: I have no idea. Pan’s Labyrinth was dazzling to look at; dig that blue-green palette!

Editing: This often goes to multi-plot films like Crash and Traffic, so it will be Babel’s lone win.

Art Direction: Pan’s Labyrinth had period décor AND ornate fantasy worlds, so maybe the most art direction will prevail?

Costume Design: Delicious rainbows of retro diva-wear over two decades in Dreamgirls should do the trick.

Score: Everybody’s all abuzz about this Alexandre Desplat guy, so The Queen is my ill-informed guess.

Sound Mixing: I dunno. Lately the trend is musicals, so another for Dreamgirls.

Sound Editing: I dunno. How about the only Best Pic nominee, Letters?

Visual Effects: Really, I don’t know. Superman seems like the kind of movie that wins this award, right?

Makeup: Pan’s Labyrinth for sure. Those eyeball hands freaked me out.

Song: Adjusting one’s scale of lameness for the Academy’s taste in music, “Listen” is the only original Dreamgirls song with pizzazz. Because it will go to Dreamgirls rather than “You’ve Got a Friend in Cars” or whatever Randy Newman recycled this year.

Foreign-Language Film: Pan’s Labyrinth has six nods while the rest have none outside this category, so that’s pretty easy.

Animated Feature: Tough call. A victory at the Annie Awards puts Cars ahead of Happy Feet.

Documentary Feature: The message was as important as the filmmaking was dull, but An Inconvenient Truth was a political lightning rod and the film community won’t be able to resist voting for it and feeling relevant.