Today! TheAvaHurtLoctarker wins!

Well, the big day has arrived. Brian and I are actually going to watch the Oscars in our local neighborhood pub. This particular pub, which I am quickly starting to adore, has trivia on Sunday nights and today the guy is doing Oscar-themed trivia while also broadcasting the Academy Awards on the screens around the bar. So, it should be fun. I totally grilled him though, a couple weeks ago when he first announced it: "You're only doing trivia during commercials, right? I mean, you're not, like, going to talk during any of the show or anything, right? Right?!!"

I love Oscars day! But I will confess that I am torn even as the last minute approaches about which movie is going to win Best Picture. I have been thinking The Hurt Locker for a while, but just in the last few days I have started to think that Kathryn Bigelow will win for Directing but Avatar will actually take Best Picture. But then you cannot discount the possibility of a third-party upset due to the ranking system of voting. Which, by the way, I am actually starting to like. I have already changed my Oscar pool vote a few times, and still might change it again in the hour or so I have left.

If In the Loop somehow wins for Best Adapted Screenplay, listen carefully because you might hear me screaming for joy all the way from Chicago. I do like Up in the Air and An Education, though, so I won't be angry if that doesn't happen, just thoroughly delighted if it does.

Even though the Supporting Acting categories are widely considered the surest bets, it is interesting to consider the prospect of an upset. There is the slightest of chances that Christopher Plummer could triumph, having finally earned an Oscar nomination after years of amazing work. Christoph Waltz, who of course was nothing short of brilliant, is younger with just practically speaking more years of chances ahead of him. It would be interesting to see the upset; I wish no ill will to either of them and am not taking a stance. I thought all the acting in The Last Station was great, and I was moved to tears by that film and by the actual archival footage of Tolstoy in the end credits.

My latest flick was Un Prohete (A Prophet), a Foreign Language nominee, which we watched at our cinema around the corner on Friday night. It is really, really good and could definitely give The White Ribbon a run for its money in my book. I liked Ajami, but not as much as those two. Unfortunately, I have not seen El Secreto de Sus Ojos or The Milk of Sorrow, so I can't speak to their chances, but I hear they are both really good, which makes this a hard category to predict.

Well, it's nearly time to start watching Red Carpet coverage. Happy Oscars, everyone! I need to go switch my pick back and forth between Avatar and The Hurt Locker a few more times.