Obligatory Oscar Picks

I guess since I put in the time to mathematically break down the Oscar winner for best picture and all, and TV and Movies is about the only thing I talk about on this originally intended "eclectic" blog, and my loyal followers (See: People I'll be watching this with anyways) are dying to know that I'm going straight chalk with my picks, and I like to have something I can point to when all my picks were right but also delete when they turn out horribly incorrect...uh...this was going somewhere...Oh yeah, for all those reasons, here are my Oscar Picks.

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Winner: The Artist
Dark Horse: Hugo (War Horse and The Help were both considered for different comedic purposes)
My Favorite: Hugo
If this wins, I officially give up: Extremely Lous and Incredibly Misguided

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: Jean Dujardin
Dark Horse: Brad Pitt
My Favorite: George Clooney
If this wins, I officially give up: Demián Bichir (just because I don't know who he is)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Winner: Viola Davis
Dark Horse: Meryle Streep
My Favorite: Michelle Williams
If this wins, I officially give up: Rooney Mara

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner: Christopher Plummer
Dark Horse: Max von Sydow
My Favorite: Nick Nolte
If this wins, I officially give up: Joneah Hill (I'm still not comfortable seeing skinny Jonah)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner: Octavia Spencer
Dark Horse: Bérénice Bejo
My Favorite: Melissa McCarthy
If this wins, I officially give up: Janet McTeer

Best Achievement in Directing
Winner: Michel Hazanavicius
Dark Horse: Martin Scorsese
My Favorite: Martin Scorsese
If this wins, I officially give up: Woody Allen (because I'm afraid of taking heat if I say Terrence Malick)

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Winner: Midnight in Paris
Dark Horse: The Artist
My Favorite: Bridesmaids
If this wins, I officially give up: Magin Call (seriously, who saw this?)

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Winner: The Descendants
Dark Horse: Moneyball
My Favorite: The Descendants (I really want Community promos advertising "Oscar Winner Jim Rash)
If this wins, I officially give up: The Ides of March (Congratulations. You found a way to make a movie about the Democratic Primaries boring!)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Winner: Rango
Dark Horse: -
My Favorite: Rango
If this wins, I officially give up: Cars 2 (through a write-in campaign)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Winner: A Separation
Dark Horse: Monsieur Lazhar (when in doubt, pick the one that's hardest to say)
My Favorite: A Separation
If this wins, I officially give up: Footnote (the title reminds me too much of Footloose)

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Winner: Hugo
Dark Horse: The Tree of Life
My Favorite: The Tree of Life (say what you will, but this movie deserves this much)
If this wins, I officially give up: The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

Best Achievement in Editing
Winner: The Artist
Dark Horse: Moneyball
My Favorite: Moneyball
If this wins, I officially give up: The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Winner: The Artist
Dark Horse: Hugo
My Favorite: Midnight in Paris
If this wins, I officially give up: I'm ok with all these

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Winner: The Artist (when in doubt, go straight chalk)
Dark Horse: Anonymous
My Favorite: The Artist
If this wins, I officially give up: W.E.

Best Achievement in Makeup
Winner: Iron Lady
Dark Horse: Harry Potter
My Favorite: Harry Potter
If this wins, I officially give up: Albert Nobbs (I don't actually care, but there's only three nominees)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Winner: The Artist
Dark Horse: Hugo
My Favorite: War Horse (It's almost unfair putting anyone here against The Artist, but I really liked John Williams' work in this)
If this wins, I officially give up: The Adventures of Tin Tin (Because if you pick a John Williams nominee, it should be War Horse)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Winner: "Man of Muppet" (The Muppets)
Dark Horse: "Real in Rio" (Rio) [Default Pick]
My Favorite: Anything else from The Muppets
If this wins, I officially give up: "Real in Rio"

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
Winner: War Horse
Dark Horse: Hugo
My Favorite: War Horse
If this wins, I officially give up: Transformers 3

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Winner: Hugo
Dark Horse: War Horse
My Favorite: Drive
If this wins, I officially give up: Transformers 3

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Winner: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Dark Horse: Harry Potter
My Favorite: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
If this wins, I officially give up: Real Steel

Best Documentary, Features
Winner: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Dark Horse: Pina
My Favorite: Project Nim [Note: Not actually nominated]
If this wins, I officially give up: This implies I've seen any of these

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Winner: God is the Bigger Elvis [My favorite of the nominated titles]
Dark Horse: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom [Second favorite title]
My Favorite: Incident in New Baghdad [Third favorite title]
If this wins, I officially give up: Saving Face [Least favorite title]

Best Short Film, Animated
[See reasoning for "Best Documentary, Short Subjects"]
Winner: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Dark Horse: La Luna
My Favorite: Sunday [Only if it's a documentary about the making of the music video for "Friday"]
If this wins, I officially give up: A Morning Stroll

Best Short Film, Live Action
[See reasoning for "Best Documentary, Short Subjects"]
Winner: Tuba Atlantic
Dark Horse: Pentecost
My Favorite: Time Freak
If this wins, I officially give up: Raju


There you go. I predict this will be 63% accurate.