Picture - No Country for Old Men - The Coens' comeback has pretty much swept the guilds except for the editors (maybe because the Coens edit their movies themselves under a pseudonym) and cinematography, but having the consensus backing of writers, directors, producers and the coveted Screen Actors Guild is a pretty good sign that this will take the highest prize on Sunday.

Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis There Will Be Blood - This one is Daniel Day-Lewis' to lose and it's likely that this might be the one award taken home for There Will Be Blood, although many have considered it a masterpiece that can spoil some of the other categories, such as adapted screenplay, director and cinematography. (Remember Roman Polanski's The Pianist and how it stole a few categories?) Even thinking about that year might put hives on some pundits, because Day-Lewis is in the exact same place where he was that same year when he was the frontrunner for Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and then lost in a shock win by Adrien Brody for The Pianist. It's doubtful that will happen again, because there isn't enough support from any other group for anyone besides Day-Lewis.

Actress - Julie Christie Away From Her - This one might as well be a three-sided coin flip but however much some might feel that Marion Cotillard deserves the Oscar more for her amazing performance as Edith Piaf (I agree), the fact that it's a French film and fewer Academy voters have seen the movie, will give Christie the slight edge to win her second Oscar. (Not to mention the fact that the Academy tends to skew older and some might be able to relate to her situation.) Some feel that the young gun Ellen Page might sneak in if the vote gets split between Christie and Cotillard, but she'll probably have more chances and stronger roles than Juno to show her stuff.

Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem No Country for Old Men - Not much to talk about here because it's pretty well guaranteed that Javier Bardem will finish his collection of seasonal awards with his first Oscar for his performance as a hitman in the Coens' No Country for Old Men. It's just too great a role and performance not to honor and respect, especially since he's the only actor for the movie with a nomination. The only possibly spoiler might be Hal Holbrook if the Academy decides to give him a career Oscar, but if that many of their members saw and loved Into the Wild, it might have received more nominations in other categories as well.

Supporting Actress - Cate Blanchett I'm Not There - It's somewhat vexing how many of my colleagues have been changing their minds on a daily basis about who will win here and it's not too surprising since the precursors to this award have been all over the place. Golden Globes picked Cate Blanchett, Broadcast Film Critics went with Amy Ryan (as did most critics groups except for my own group, the New York Film Critics Online) and then SAG threw a monkey wrench in the works by going with legendary actress Ruby Dee for American Gangster, which was otherwise snubbed by the Academy. SAG obviously liked Gangster having nominated it for other awards, so it made sense they'd give it something. Without any previous awards, Tilda Swinton only won the recent BAFTA award and all of a sudden, all these other pundits are switching their pick to Tilda under the pretense that the Academy will want to reward Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton for something and this will be a chance to give Tilda much-needed and deserved kudos. This seems like a ludicrous theory to me. Even though Cate might seem like a longshot since we just won a few years ago, I'm sticking by my guns because anyone who's seen Todd Haynes' I'm Not There agrees on one thing and that's that Blanchett's performance as Dylan is amazing, not just because she captures his swagger and everything about him, but because it's an incredibly powerful and moving performance. Sure, Amy Ryan and Ruby Dee both have great scenes but did they make those movies? Nope. Blanchett was considered the frontrunner months ago and the fact that the Academy nominated her for performances in two categories proves that they're not sick of her yet.

Director - Joel & Ethan Coen No Country for Old Men - For the first year where they were nominated in this category as a team, the Coens are coming into the Oscar race with the DGA award under their belt and numerous critical awards, and that's a good sign for them to take their first Oscar for direction for what's turning into the clear Best Picture frontrunner. A spoiler from P.T. Anderson or Julian Schnabel is possible but not probable.

Adapted Screenplay - Joel & Ethan Coen No Country for Old Men - While the Coen Brothers seem almost guaranteed a second Oscar for their writing this year, there are a couple potential spoilers, such as Paul Thomas Anderson's script for There Will Be Blood and Christopher Hampton's Atonement, the latter not having much chance for kudos elsewhere. While all three movies are downers, they're all commendable adaptations of difficult works, something that all the members of the Academy should appreciate. Still, the Coens have won before and they have enough support in the Academy to do so again, and so they shall.

Original Screenplay - Tony Gilroy Michael Clayton - I've said from Day 1 that this would come down to Tony Gilroy's script for Michael Clayton vs. Diablo Cody's Juno and most people are going with the latter because of its witty banter and the fact that it's an upbeat comedy which has often won in this category in the past. I agree that it makes Juno the frontrunner here, although I've decided that if the Academy REALLY wants to award Michael Clayton, which was nominated in so many categories this year, they're more likely to nominate Tony Gilroy for his script than the third most important member of his cast. That makes a lot more sense to me than Tilda Swinton winning supporting as a token Oscar for Gilroy's debut, so I'm going to go out on a limb and go against the rest of the world. Sorry, Diablo. I still think you're adorable.

Animated Film - Ratatouille - The little French engine that could Persepolis has tried hard to derail Pixar's chances at their umpteenth Oscar in this category, but it's not nearly the achievement in storytelling and animation as the gourmet rodent comedy, so Brad Bird should brush off that tux from his win for The Incredibles a few years back and make space for his second Oscar. (The fact that like The Incredibles, Bird has been nominated for the film's screenplay is somewhat of a giveaway.)

Foreign Film - Beaufort - In a year where 90% of the world has only seen 80% of the movies in the running, can we expect any of the Academy's members to even vote in this category? Personally, I've only seen the Austrian Holocaust movie The Counterfeiters, which conveniently opens this weekend (after ballots have already been turned in), although the Israeli war movie Beaufort apparently played in a few theaters last month without anyone realizing it. Usually, the best money would be on the Holocaust movie winning, but personally, I just don't think The Counterfeiters is that great so I'm hoping that a powerful war movie like Beaufort might have more effect on Oscar voters.

Documentary Feature - No End in Sight - Actually, this category could go in many different ways and while Michael Moore's Sicko would be a shoe-in only because the most people have seen it, much like An Inconvenient Truth last year, but it's not as likely to have as big an impact on Oscar voters as some of the war docs. And let's not forget Michael Moore's anti-war diatribe five years ago, and while at least one of this year's nominations proved him to be right, he still made a lot of enemies in the Academy that year. As much as I'd love to see War/Dance spoil this category, because it's such a joyous film, I'll be just as happy to see Charles Ferguson to get credit for his amazing investigative piece about how the Iraq War went wrong.

Original Score - Dario Marianelli Atonement - Without Jonny Greenwood's score for There Will Be Blood in the running, this category becomes somewhat of a crap shoot, but despite great scores for The Kite Runner and Ratatouille, it's likely that Atonement will play the role of Babel at this year's Oscars, having won the Golden Globe for Best Picture but settling for a measly Oscar for its score.

Original Song - "Falling Slowly" Once - Maybe this is wishful thinking or maybe the three-song curse that killed Dreamgirls chance of a win will have a similar affect on Enchanted's three nominations this year, but there's very few songs that have had such an impact as when Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova first perform this song together in John Carney's musical romance. One normally wouldn't think Oscar voters to be hip enough to vote for this over one of Alan Menken's cheery Disney tunes, but let's not forget the win by "Its Hard Out Here for a Pimp" a couple years back and Eminem's "Lose Yourself."

Cinematography - Roger Deakins No Country for Old Men - This may be the biggest upset of the year if Deakins doesn't win after being nominated so many times before, and he has two chances, having also been nominated for The Assassination of Jesse James. Unfortunately, it already lost the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) to Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood, but I can't imagine the Academy being so cruel to poor Roger Deakins. (Deakins had already won the ASC's honor twice before, though that didn't carry over to the Oscars.)

Visual Effects - Transformers - Pirates of the Caribbean won last year for the effects on Dead Man's Chest, but this year is all about Industrial Light & Magic's ability to update the transforming robots, bring them to life and put them into insane robot battles. (The irony is that ILM did the visual effects for both movies but they'll win it for the movie that was made for HALF the budget of the other one.)

Costume Design - Colleen Atwood Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - In any other year, this would go to a movie like Elizabeth: The Golden Age without question because period pieces tend to kill in this category and the period dress of Atonement would be thought as a sure thing for the same reason, and yet, Colleen Atwood's costumes for Tim Burton's musical are so fantastic and memorable and unlike anything we've seen before, which was not the case with the other two movies, and having already won the Costume Designers' Guild and two previous Oscars (Memoirs of a Geisha and Chicago), Atwood's likely to make it a threesome.

Art Direction - Atonement - This is a similarly difficult group to predict and while normally one would figure Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd might win here, too, there's a much bigger scope of things to consider including sets and props and just the overall look of the movie, and that's one thing that's likely to be remembered about Atonement. That said, Art Design Guild has gone with P. T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood and the fantasy film The Golden Compass so it's tough to call which way the Academy might go.

Make-Up - La Vie en Rose - It seems that Marion Cotillard's transformation into Edith Piaf could be attributed just as much to the make-up team who turned the beautiful young actress into the French singer at various ages. Then again, they also could be responsible for Eddie Murphy losing his Oscar last year by transforming him into Norbit. Since I don't think anyone wants to give any awards to that comedy, it should be La Vie en Rose for this one.

Film Editing - Christopher Rouse The Bourne Ultimatum - In past years, this category has been a good precursor to determine the Best Picture race but that's been changing with otherwise snubbed movies like Black Hawk Down and The Aviator getting commended with technical awards like this one. It might be too weird to give it to a fictitious editor like Roderick Jaynes anyway, so this is one award that the Coens will have to give to someone else.

Sound Mixing - 3:10 to Yuma - You'd think that with my background in sound mixing, I'd have some sort of insight into this category, but all I know is that any year there's a musical like Ray or Chicago or last year's Dreamgirls it will win.. and yet, this year, none of the musicals were nominated. Other years, it's gone to the big epics like Lord of the Rings and King Kong, but I just don't see an obscenely loud movie like Tranformers winning, so I think this will be a surprise in that it will be the one Oscar won by the Western 3:10 to Yuma.

Sound Editing - Transformers - Unlike Sound Mixing, this one could very well go to the loudest movie, and in past years, it's almost always been given to a big movie that's either a war film or a big budget action effects movie and the only one that seems to fit both categories is Michael Bay's sci-fi action blockbuster. Sure, one of the quieter movies like No Country or There Will Be Blood might get honored for the atmosphere created by the sound work, though they'll both have opportunities for other awards.

Documentary Short Subject - I'm not going to lie. I haven't seen any of these, haven't heard of most of them, and I have no freakin' idea. Close your eyes and blindly pick one.

Live Action Short Film - "The Mozart of Pickpockets" - I'm just picking the one that I personally liked the best in hopes that the Academy will do the same.

Animated Short Film - "Peter and the Wolf" - Personally, I like the odd "Madame Tutli-Putli" better than this animated version of a classic story but I think that's just too oddball for Oscar voters, so I'm going with something safer.