So, I have offered these each of the last two, with varying levels of success. I even tried liveblogging last year. I didn’t see everything I would have liked to this year, but I will do what I can all the same.

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

• What will win: The Hurt Locker
• What should win: Up in the Air
• What I didn’t see: The Blind Side
• What should have been nominated: The Messenger and (500) Days of Summer were certainly better than Precious.

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

• Who will win: Kathryn Bigelow
• Who should win: Kathryn Bigelow
• What I didn’t see:
• Who should have been nominated: Someone not Lee Daniels, who truly did bad directing on Precious.

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

• Who will win: Jeff Bridges
• Who should win: Colin Firth
• What I didn’t see: Crazy Heart, Invictus
• Who should have been nominated: Ben Foster in the Messenger was very underrated. Complete performance.

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

• Who will win: Meryl Streep
• Who should win: Carey Mulligan
• What I didn’t see: The Blind Side, Julie & Julia
• Who should have been nominated: Melanie Laurent, Inglorious Basterds

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

• Who will win: Christoph Waltz
• Who should win: Christoph Waltz
• What I didn’t see: The Lovely Bones, Invictus
• Who should have been nominated: Alfred Molina in An Education could in fact compete with Waltz. Very touching work.

Best Supporting Actress
Penélope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious

• Who will win: Mo’Nique
• Who should win: Mo’Nique
• What I didn’t see: Nine, Crazy Heart
• Who should have been nominated: No strong feelings here.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Neil Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci, In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

• Prediction: Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, A Serious Man
Pete Docter and Bob Peterson, Up
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Prediction: Inglorious Basterds

Best Animated Film
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Prediction: Up

Best Foreign Film
Ajami
El Secreto de Sus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

Prediction: A Prophet

Best Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Prediction: Avatar

Best Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Prediction: The Hurt Locker

Best Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Prediction: The Hurt Locker

Best Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Prediction: Avatar

Best Original Score
Avatar, James Horner
Fantastic Mr. Fox, Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker, Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes, Hans Zimmer
Up, Michael Giacchino

Prediction: Up

Best Original Song
“Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from Paris 36, Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from Nine, Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart, Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Prediction: Crazy Heart

Best Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Prediction: The Young Victoria

Best Documentary Feature
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Prediction: The Cove

Best Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin

Prediction: The Last Truck

Best Film Editing

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Prediction: The Hurt Locker

Best Makeup
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Prediction: Stark Trek

Best Animated Short Film
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Prediction: A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Live-Action Short Film
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Prediction: The New Tenants

Best Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

I held this for a long time in hopes that I could see more films, but I should have known that once winter break was over that wasn’t going to happen. At any rate, these are my ten for 2009:

Up in the Air, Inglorious Basterds, An Education, A Serious Man, The Hurt Locker, Up 500 Days (of Summer), Adventureland, The Messenger, Where the Wild Things Are,  Lymelife

In something like that order, with Goodbye, Solo being a very close eleven. I felt this year has a larger number of very good films, if not one runaway classic, hence the closeness of the films.