79th Annual Academy Awards (2007)
Presentation to air on TV on Sunday, February 25, 2007 for films released in 2006.

... and yes, we skip some categories... just because I don't care about best editing, for example.

I've come to the notion that it's not necessarily the *best* in each category, but a combination of the quality of the nominees and politics. It's all politics and who you know, man. So I have both my picks that deserve to win, and those I figure are the "popular" picks to win (and those aren't always the same, obviously).

The is whom I think ought to win, the is my guess of who will win, and once announced, the title in bold is the actual winner.

Category	Nominees
Best Picture	Babel   The Departed     Letters from Iwo Jima     Little Miss Sunshine   The Queen
Best Director	Clint Eastwood - Letters from Iwo Jima     Stephen Frears - The Queen   Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu - Babel     Paul Greengrass - United 93   Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Actor in a Leading Role	Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond     Ryan Gosling - Half Nelson     Peter O'Toole - Venus     Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
Actress in a Leading Role	Penelope Cruz - Volver     Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal Helen Mirren - The Queen     Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada     Kate Winslet - Little Children
Actor in a Supporting Role	Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine     Jackie Earle Haley - Little Children     Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond   Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls   Mark Wahlberg - The Departed
Actress in a Supporting Role	Adriana Barraza - Babel     Cate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal   Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine   Jennifer Hudson - Dreammgrls     Rinko Kikuchi - Babel
Animated Feature Film	Cars     Happy Feet     Monster House
Cinematography	The Black Dahlia     Children of Men     The Illusionist   Pan's Labrinth     The Prestige
Costume Design	Curse of the Golden Flower     The Devil Wears Prada     Dreamgirls   Marie Antoinette   The Queen
Documentary Feature	Deliver Us from Evil An Inconvenient Truth     Iraq in Fragments     Jesus Camp     My Country, My Country
Foreign Language Film	After the Wedding (Denmark)     Days of Glory (Indigenes) (Algeria)     The Lives of Others (Germany) Pan's Labrinth (Mexico)     Water (Canada)
Music (Score)	Babel     The Good German     Notes on a Scandal     Pan's Labrinth   The Queen
Music (Song)	'I Need to Wake Up' (An Inconvenient Truth)     'Love You I Do' (Dreamgirls)     'Our Town' (Cars)     'Patience' (Dreamgirls)     'Listen' (Dreamgirls)
Visual Effects	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest     Poseidon   Superman Returns
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)	Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Beneift Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan     Children of Men     The Departed     Little Children   Notes on a Scandal
Writing (Original Screenplay)	Babel     Letters from Iwo Jima   Little Miss Sunshine     Pan's Labrinth   The Queen