My Oscar picks (wow... unimaginativeness at its best!)

A couple of hours from now, the whole world would know who won the Oscars for 2003. And what better way to shake of almost a week of inactivity than to predict who’d go home with statuettes of their own.

Well, I might as well be putting my foot in my mouth when I don’t pick Peter Jackson for the best direction, but I thought Clint Eastwood painted a better and poignant picture of a misfit trying to avenge his daughter’s death. As for the best actor Oscar, two of my personal favorites, both odd-balls in their own right with a penchant for oddest of roles, are both claimants for an award that a couple of previous winners are fighting for too. Though one of them, Jude Law picks Sean Penn for the ultimate prize, I am rooting for Johnny Depp as the incorrigible pirate with the painted eyes and a swagger reminiscent of one resulting from too many Jack Daniels, Jack Sparrow (see a picture of Depp as Capt. Sparrow and one look-alike at the Athens Halloween Street party this year here). But sadly, I think I am rooting for a losing cause, as the Oscar’s never seem to favor comedy and Capt. Jack Sparrow raises a laugh every time he walks on screen, whether it is when he lands lithely on shore from the top mast of his slowly sinking ship or when he fights the “un-dead” Barbarossa and his henchmen. Tim Robbins and Renee Zellweger earn their votes with such earnestness and spontaneity. For Robbins this is perhaps his best role since playing Inmate 37927 in 1994’s prison saga, Shawshank Redemption. As for the best animated movie, Finding Nemo is everybody’s choice though some people claim that Ellen Degeneres should consider herself unlucky to have missed out on a best actress nomination for her role as the voice of Dory, a short term amnesiac. But she’s sure to be remembered as much as Robin Williams is for the voice of the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin. I watched Finding Nemo twice and it’s my pick to win the best original screenplay award too.

So here are my picks….


BEST FILM
LOTR – The Return of the king

BEST DIRECTOR
Clint Eastwood, Mystic River

BEST ACTOR
Johnny Depp, Pirates Of the Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl

BEST ACTRESS
Charlize Theron, Monster

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Tim Robbins, Mystic River

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Renée Zellweger, Cold Mountain

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Finding Nemo

BEST WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
Mystic River

BEST WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Finding Nemo

Update: Hmmm...Five out of Nine is still a good score. But eleven for LOTR ? Wow... And as Billy Crystal said, everybody in New Zealand was thanked. But no one bothered to thank the sheep. Now why did I type that last line?