Early Oscar Predictions

Here are my very early nomination predictions, in the major categories.

Best Picture
The Departed
Dreamgirls
Flags of Our Fathers
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Best Director
Bill Condon, Dreamgirls
Clint Eastwood, Flags of Our Fathers
Steven Frears, The Queen
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Steven Soderbergh, The Good German

Best Actor
Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Peter O’Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress
Annette Bening, Running With Scissors
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Steve Carrell, Little Miss Sunshine
Jack Nicholson, The Departed
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Brad Pitt, Babel

Best Supporting Actress
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Cate Blanchett, Notes of a Scandal
Vera Farmiga, The Departed
Maggie Gyllenhaal, World Trade Center
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Best Original Screenplay
Babel
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Volver

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Departed
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
The Good German
Thank You For Smoking

Best Cinematography
Babel
The Departed
Flags of Our Fathers
The Good German
World Trade Center

Best Animated Feature
Cars
Flushed Away
Monster House
Over the Hedge
A Scanner Darkly

Best Foreign Language Film
Black Book (Paul Verhoeven, The Netherlands)
Lunacy (Jan Svankmajer, Denmark)
Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, Mexico)
Volver (Pedro Almodovar, Spain)
Water (Deepa Menta, Canada)