Well folks, the 82 Academy Awards are upon us, and after sitting through the good, the bad and the definitely ugly of the big screen in 2009, it's time to decide which movie was the best of them all. Although the winner's envelopes will not be opened until March 7 I'm pretty sure my predictions are accurate.

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Interesting fact: before Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges received four Academy Award nominations, winning none. He also received three Golden Globe nominations before "Crazy Heart", but finally won a Golden Globe for this film to break his streak of being always a nominee.

The Golden Globe is his first movie award and Crazy Heart has earned him his highest number of nominations for one movie - 12 award nominations, 5 wins. Maybe this might be his year to break his dry spell at the Oscars as well.

George Clooney, Up in the Air

Despite the positive reviews this film received from critics, I can't think of one good reason why this movie is here. And for such a fantastic actor to waste the entire of 2009 on this and The Men Who Stare at Goats tells me Hollywood is trying to kill his career just like they did Samuel L. Jackson's.

But, sadly, the odds look in his favour. So far, this movie has given him the most awards he has ever received for a single movie (8 awards), and his highest number of nominations (17 nominations).

The only thing working against him is the fact that he's only managed to get one Oscar out of 3 previous nominations, but that doesn't change the fact that he has a strong chance of taking this one away.

Colin Firth, A Single Man

For a first-time director to bring a film worthy of Academy Award attention is admirable, even if the award goes to one of his actors. British actor Colin Firth has seen the most award nominations and wins of his career with A Single Man, including his very first Academy Award nomination. While that's a lot of firsts, this won't be a first Oscar win by any means.

Morgan Freeman, Invictus

This is probably the award that Invictus has the greatest chance of going home with. As opposed to Matt Damon's three nominations for Best Supporting Actor, Freeman has 6 nominations for Best Lead Actor, and I think that speaks volumes. If Invictus is going to win anything at the Oscars this year it would be here.

This film is the only one to match the number of nominations for James Cameron's Avatar and with good reason. Critics argue that The Hurt Locker was the best movie of the year or even the decade, so why not give the protagonist a nod as Best Actor?

And it most likely wins the coveted Oscar as well. Although, with contenders like the never-disappointing Morgan Freeman, Academy Award newcomer Colin Firth and a new-and-improved Jeff Bridges, anything can happen in this category. But, with The Hurt Locker having just as much hype as Avatar, it's almost sure to win.

Visual Effects:

Star Trek

Don't be fooled, this is one of those awards that are fought for just as much as any other, and the crew of Star Trek did indeed fight.

From hiring the special effects powerhouse Industrial Lights and Magic (who on their own have 19 Best Visual Effects Oscars as well as 20 other awards from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) to consulting with a planetary scientist from NASA and researching what explosions look like in space, they were more than willing to go the extra mile.

And, just to make sure, they even revamped the Starship Enterprise to make it bigger and include more moving parts. It's one thing to make things look shiny, but these people did research on how things actually shine in 'the final frontier'.

District 9

There's a lot working against this one winning this Oscar. For starters, the original effects company that director Neill Blomkamp wanted to design the alien anatomy for the film ended up doing work for Avatar (which, coincidentally, are nominated against them).

Then, he decided to go with the little-known Vancouver-based Image Engine, both as a last resort and because Canada gives tax breaks for moviemakers. It's worth mentioning that Image Engine has never done a feature film before, and as such have never been in this prestigious position before.

But anthropomorphic aliens might not measure up against exploding planets and ... other anthropomorphic aliens with blue skin.

Some might consider this nomination a win-win. If they lose, no one really expected better from the newcomers, but if they win we might have another Industrial Lights and Magic on our hands.

Avatar

The visual effects of this film go even further than CGI and a dash of blue, and that why this one deserves to take this Oscar. Director James Cameron originally wanted this movie out in the 1990's, but decided to take a break until the technology could catch up to his vision.

When technological advancements were moving to slow, he thought it best to speed up the pace himself. That included individually made motion capture skullcaps, a specially designed camera to capture facial expressions alone for the animators to keep for reference, and a motion capture stage extended to six times the usual size.

What's more, generating the graphics for the film required 900 employees, a supercomputer 10000 square feet in size, and 1000000 gigabytes of digital storage. I would say they more than fought for this one. And I would say they've earned it.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:

Christopher Plummer, The Last Station

For those budding filmmakers out there, here's something to note; a good biography will always get an Oscar nomination.

In this case, there are two; one for Christopher Plummer and his partner in the film, Helen Mirren, for Male Support and Female Lead respectively, not only here but at the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards as well

In the case of the Golden Globes and SAGs, they both lost to Christoph Waltz and Sandra Bullock respectively. It looks like another loss her for Plummer but I guess that's what happens when you're nominated for Supporting Male even though the biography is actually about your character.

Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

This limited release film only has two nominations at the Oscars. But for this film, Woody Harrelson has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor ten times, already winning one from the National Board of Review.

So there's a chance he could walk away with this Oscar. With major players like Christoph Waltz and Stanley Tucci contending for the award as well, though, it seems unlikely.

Matt Damon, Invictus

Damon has four nominations for Best Supporting Male for this movie, but too much stands in the way of him actually winning it.

For starters, the major attraction of Invictus might very well be the convincing portrayal of Nelson Mandela from Morgan Freeman, which also got a nomination.

Director Clint Eastwood was not nominated for Best Director and this could mean no Oscars for the film at all. While Damon's performance is fantastic, it doesn't stand much of a chance here.

Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

For a movie that only barely broke even in terms of making a great film, the strongest point of the film was Tucci's character, George Harvey. This makes his fifth nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Never before has a portrayal of a paedophile been more deserving of praise. While it goes without saying that he's not going to win, Tucci's intense and well-developed character deserves a nomination.

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Long story short, this one wins it.

I could go on and on about the critical acclaim he received for his entertainingly frightening performance in Inglourious Basterds as the cunning and sinister Hans Landa, and I could even quote director Quentin Tarantino who said he wouldn't have made the movie without Waltz's portrayal.

But that's unnecessary. Because he's already won 24 awards for his portrayal in the film, and was nominated for two more, one of which is this Oscar. It's his. No use arguing why.

The winners of these three Oscar awards, as well as the countless other Academy Awards, represent the best of the best of movies in 2009.

Look out for the next installment of my Oscar predictions where I will give you my pick for Best Actresses in both Lead and Supporting Roles and the my choice for Best Cinematography.

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