Oscar predictions: Major categories

Predicting the major winners while singling out some of the Academy’s mistakes for 2010

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This Saturday I’ve been asked to join Matthew Bernstein to talk about the Academy Awards on 11 Alive’s morning show, so unless other news breaks on they come to there senses, you may see my likeness over the airwaves around 9:40 a.m. on Feb. 26. I’ve been asked to identify ome of my predictions, snubs and overlooked favorites.

Snubs: To me, the most egregious snubs are Julianne Moore for Best Actress for The Kids Are All Right (although even Supporting Actress would have been a tolerable consolation): She’s basically a co-lead with Annette Bening, and her character arguably drives the plot more than Bening’s dones. Plus, she’s never won an Oscar. Plus, she’s great in it. (For that matter, one of my favorite films of last year was Please Give,’ which was arguably better written and better acted than The Kids Are All Right, but the latter film had more star power and got more attention.

Overrated: Best Picture nominee Black Swan strikes me as crazily overrated. Natalie Portman clearly worked her heart out for it, but it’s themes and ideas look increasingly stupid when you hold them up to scrutiny. I also find True Grit a little overpraised, but mostly because the Coen Brothers set such a high standard that movie that’s just “good” feels like a let-down.