The Rest of the Races

I don’t know these categories very well, so use with caution.

Cinematography:
The moody palette of The Dark Knight, because even if the Academy couldn’t stomach a Best Picture nod for Batman, they must admit the photography is fantastic.

Editing:
The alternating chronology of Slumdog should do the trick.

Art Direction:
Benjamin Button got the highest nomination total this year, so at least a mini-sweep is in order, and the sheer number of historical sets will push Oscar’s buttons.

Costume Design:
I’ll say another one for Button, because the costumes cover almost every decade of the 20th century. If not, then the froufy gowns of The Duchess.

Score:
The pulsing, energetic Slumdog music.

Sound Mixing:
The first half hour of Wall-E is told entirely through sound, so that’s my guess. (Dark Knight is my second guess.)

Sound Editing:
Ditto for Wall-E. (And a runner-up ditto for Dark Knight.)

Visual Effects:
The Curious wizards who grafted Brad Pitt’s performance onto the bodies of both elderly and child actors.

Makeup:
The Curious wizards who made Pitt and Cate Blanchett look much younger and much, much older.

Song:
This category exists to be completely insane, so why bother? The days of Disney films automatically winning are over, so I’ll axe the lame-ass Wall-E song and guess “Jai Ho”, the dance track with soaring vocals featured in the jubilant finale of Slumdog (rather than the film’s other nominated song, because I can’t place where in the film the song appeared.)

Animated Feature:
Wall-E is nominated for a screenplay award. It was a genuine possibility for a Best Picture nod. Done and done.

Documentary Feature:
Man on Wire was the most widely seen, which makes it the front-runner. (But this category often sees front-runners mysteriously passed over.)

Foreign Language Film:
Waltz With Bashir falls somewhere between the foreign language, documentary, and animated feature categories. It won the DGA and WGA awards as a documentary. It will probably win here too, unless genre-sticklers go for The Class.