There's one week until the Oscars. I want to be excited for it, because by next Sunday, I will have seen all 5 nominees in the Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress categories. All I'm missing right now are Frozen River, Changeling, and The Reader, which I'm saving for last because it's got my girl in it. I'll have plenty of time to catch up since this is the NYC mid-winter break (WOOO!)

Anyway, I'm quite proud of myself for catching up and going in as an informed viewer, because I'm a geek about the ceremony and it's more fun if I've seen everything. But as for the nominees themselves, I'm not very excited about them. I think last year's movies kicked this year's movies' ASSES. No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood were two of the best movies of the DECADE, as far as I'm concerned, and even though I had issues with all three of these, I still think Atonement, Juno, and Michael Clayton were more interesting than this year's crop.

Take in point, Slumdog Millionaire, the movie everyone but swsa ADORES. Me? I liked it. I didn't love it. I thought it was great as a coming-of-age story, but then it shifted gears into a pretty formulaic love story that I just didn't buy, and I was quite confused. I was disappointed. And the thing is, I *still* think it deserves Best Picture in comparison to the other movies nominated for Best Picture. I liked Milk, Benjamin Button, and Frost/Nixon just fine, and they were pretty good and accomplished movies, but I wouldn't call any of them *great* films by any means.

Now, *my* pics for the 5 best films (that I saw) are The Wrestler, The Visitor, Happy-Go-Lucky, Let the Right One In, and Wall-E. Four of those had just about *zero* chance of getting in, but I was so hoping that the last one would transcend the Animated Feature category.

For the other categories, these are my hopes & predictions:

Best Actor - This one is so hard. I kind of want a three-way tie between Rourke, Langella, and Jenkins, all SO so good. I think (and hope) this is Rourke's year, though.

Best Actress - Kate. Haven't seen it yet, but I don't care. I'm rooting for her because she's awesome.

Best Supporting Actress - You know, I was never impressed with Penelope Cruz before, but I thought she was pretty damn impressive in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. That said, I'd rather see it go to Marisa Tomei.

Best Supporting Actor - Please. There's no sense even predicting this one. It's Ledger's year. And while I do think he's deserving, I so deeply wish that he and Robert Downey Jr. could split it with a tie.