My 2009 ACADEMY AWARD PREDICTIONS

Before listing predictions for this year's Oscar winners, I must comment on the nominations for Best Documentary Film - one category where the Academy cannot fall short no matter who is called to the stage on award night. All of these films are extraordinary in distinctly different yet highly effective ways. They are equally strong in fashioning storytelling, direction, filming, etc. to the optimum benefit of the particular account they set out to present. Kudos and Congratulations to the production staffs of each of these fine documentary films:

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) addresses the far-reaching implications of America's involvement in the Vietnam War through the story of Laotian immigrant Thavisouk Phrasavath who exchanged a life of persecution in Southeast Asia following US withdrawal because his father assisted the CIA for a life of poverty in Brooklyn. It is quietly gripping and poignant.

Encounters at the End of the World is filmmaker Werner Herzog's beautifully recorded examination of the unique range of personalities and occupational lifestyles from research scientists to blue collar workers defining the population surviving in the harsh environment of Antartica. Never before has ice cold been conveyed with such warmth.

The Garden is a well constructed narrative of the conflict between residents in a South Central L.A. neighborhood and the new landowner of a previously city-owned tract of land that was one of the nation's largest community gardens but the owner has targeted for development.

Man on Wire is the dramatic account of how French performance artist Philippe Petit planned and executed his 1974 high wire walk between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers that took nearly one hour to the amazement of New Yorkers observing from the streets below. An homage to the structures themselves is an unintentional subtext.

Trouble The Waters is the first hand account of New Orleans resident Kimberly Roberts and her husband's chaotic experiences of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina from their grueling exodus, settlement in Memphis and eventual return to the city. Uses actual footage shot by Roberts. Candid and raw at times.


On to my predictions:


Category....................... Should Win................... Will Win

Picture....................... Benjamin Button.............. Slumdog
Actress....................... Meryl Streep..................... Meryl Streep
Actor.......................... Brad Pitt.......................... Sean Penn
Supp. Actress.............Taraji Henson................. Amy Adams
Supp. Actor............... Heath Ledger.................. Heath Ledger
Director..................... Howard:Frost/Nixon......Boyle: Slumdog
Art Direction............. Ben/Button........................ Ben/Button
Orig. Screenplay........ Wall-E................................ Milk
Adap. Screenplay....... Ben/Button........................Slumdog
Foreign Lang.............The Class (Fr).......Waltz/Bashir (Isr'l)
Docum. Feature........ WIDE OPEN
Short Docum............. WIDE OPEN
Short Film................. New Boy...............................Toyland
Short Animated......... Lavatory/Lovestory..........La Maison
Song........................... Slumdog ............................ Slumdog
Score...........................Button or Defiance............. Slumdog
Sound Editing.............Ben/Button................... Dark Knight
Sound Mixing.............Slumdog.............................Slumdog
Editing........................Button or Milk..................Sllumdog
Cinematography......... Dark Knight.................Ben/Button
Animation................... Wall-E.............................. WALL-E
Visual Effects.............. Ben/Button.................. Ben/Button
Costume Design.......... Ben/Button.................... Australia
Makeup....................... Ben/Button................. Ben/Button