Compare your predictions with the Entertainer's Oscar picks

The ENTERTAINER

We humbly, and not so humbly in some cases, submit our staff picks for the films and actors that we think will take home Oscars at the 81st annual Academy Awards, which will be aired at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, on ABC.

Our chief picker this year is Gazette-Times publisher Mike McInally, a film aficionado and former entertainment editor who figures that in a typical year he guesses 17 of the categories correctly.

Other pickers lending their opinions to the voting included photographer Scobel Wiggins, city editor Theresa Novak, sports writer Kevin Hampton, Entertainer reporter Brandon Goldner and Entertainer editor Nancy Raskauskas.

Read some of our rationale and feel free to share your opinions on who deserves to win this year in the comment section below.

Be sure to check back Monday on the Web site for fresh articles and a slide show of images from the awards ceremony Sunday.

And with out further ado, the nominees and our picks:

THE NOMINEES

BEST PICTURE

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"Frost/Nixon"

"Milk"

"The Reader"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor"

Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon"

Sean Penn in "Milk"

Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler"

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Josh Brolin in "Milk"

Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder"

Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt"

Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight"

Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road"

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married"

Angelina Jolie in "Changeling"

Melissa Leo in "Frozen River"

Meryl Streep in "Doubt"

Kate Winslet in "The Reader"

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Amy Adams in "Doubt"

Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Viola Davis in "Doubt"

Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler"

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

"Bolt"

"Kung Fu Panda"

"Wall-E"

ART DIRECTION

"Changeling"

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"The Dark Knight"

"The Duchess"

"Revolutionary Road"

CINEMATOGRAPHY

"Changeling"

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"The Dark Knight"

"The Reader"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

COSTUME DESIGN

"Australia"

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"The Duchess"

"Milk"

"Revolutionary Road"

DIRECTING

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"Frost/Nixon"

"Milk"

"The Reader"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

"The Betrayal" (Nerakhoon)

"Encounters at the End of the World"

"The Garden"

"Man on Wire"

"Trouble the Water"

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

"The Conscience of Nhem En"

"The Final Inch"

"Smile Pinki"

"The Witness-From the Balcony of Room 306"

FILM EDITING

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"The Dark Knight"

"Frost/Nixon"

"Milk"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

"The Baader Meinhof Complex"

"The Class"

"Departures"

"Revanche"

"Waltz With Bashir"

MAKEUP

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"The Dark Knight"

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army"

MUSIC (SCORE)

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"Defiance"

"Milk"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

"Wall-E"

MUSIC (SONG)

"Down to Earth" from "Wall-E"

"Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire"

"O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire"

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

"La Maison en Petits Cubes"

"Lavatory - Lovestory"

"Oktapodi"

"Presto"

"This Way Up"

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

"Auf der Strecker" (On the Line)

"Manon on the Asphalt"

"New Boy"

"The Pig"

"Spielzeugland" (Toyland)

SOUND EDITING

"The Dark Knight"

"Iron Man"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

"Wall-E"

"Wanted"

SOUND MIXING

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"The Dark Knight"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

"Wall-E"

"Wanted"

VISUAL EFFECTS

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"The Dark Knight"

"Iron Man"

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"Doubt"

"Frost/Nixon"

"The Reader"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

"Frozen River"

"Happy-Go-Lucky"

"In Bruges"

"Milk"

"Wall-E"

GT publisher Mike McInally's picks:

Best Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Actor: Sean Penn in "Milk"

Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight"

Actress: Kate Winslet in "The Reader"

Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Animated Film: "Wall-E"

Art Direction: "Benjamin Button"

Cinematography: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Costume Design: "The Duchess"

Directing: Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"

Documentary Feature: "Man on Wire"

Documentary Short: "The Witness"

Editing: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Foreign Language Film: "The Class"

Makeup: "Benjamin Button"

Score: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Song: "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire"

Animated Short: "Presto"

Live Action Short: "Spielzugland" ("Toyland")

Sound Editing: "The Dark Knight"

Sound Mixing: "The Dark Knight"

Visual Effects: "Benjamin Button"

Adapted Screenplay: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Original Screenplay: "Milk"

McInally's comments on "Slumdog "Millionaire":

An early win in the Adapted Screenplay category for "Slumdog" will suggest that it should win big throughout the night. If it goes to "Benjamin Button" or "The Reader," all bets are off - and a win for "The Reader" could suggest that it's on its way to an upset of "Crash" or "Shakespeare in Love" proportions.)

Although you can build a case in the Best Song category for "Down to Earth," from "Wall-E." If "Jai Ho" wins, it will signal that the "Slumdog" gold rush is on.

GT sportswriter Kevin Hampton's picks:

Best Picture: "Frost/Nixon"

Actor: Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler"

Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt"

Actress: Meryl Streep in "Doubt"

Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler"

Animated Film: "Wall-E"

Art Direction: "The Dark Knight"

Cinematography: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Costume Design: "Revolutionary Road"

Directing: "Frost/Nixon"

Editing: "Frost/Nixon"

Makeup: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Score: "Defiance"

Song: "Down to Earth" from "Wall-E"

Sound Editing: "Iron Man"

Sound Mixing: "The Dark Knight"

Visual Effects: "The Dark Knight"

Adapted Screenplay: "Doubt"

Original Screenplay: "In Bruges"

GT/Entertainer photographer Scobel Wiggin's picks:

(Note: Wiggins put in the effort to actually see almost every film before making her picks)

Best Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire": What a textural piece of work, and it took me to a place I've never known.

Actor: Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler": Dog the Bounty Hunter without the mullet, with staples and barbed wire.

Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight": Want to creep someone out? Do the tongue flick.

Actress: Kate Winslet in "The Reader": I never, ever, thought I'd feel sympathetic toward a Nazi, but she had me rethinking everything I believe about forgiveness, and I don't even like Kate Winslet. Haunting.

Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler": Marisa Tomei. Tits. If you can't say that in a family newspaper, maybe you can replace it with this: What?! If you've seen it, you know what I mean.

Animated Film: "Bolt." And I don't even like Miley Cyrus, either.

Art Direction: "The Duchess"

Cinematography: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Costume Design: "The Duchess"

Directing: Danny Boyle for "Slumdog Millionaire" The performances he got from those kids says it all.

Film Editing: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Makeup: "Hellboy"

Score: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Song: "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire": I've got to learn that dance.

Short Film Animated: "Oktapodi"

Sound Editing: "Slumdog Millionaire": Even on a mediocre home system it was crisp and clean.

Sound Mixing: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Visual Effects: "Iron Man"

Adapted Screenplay: "Doubt": Thanks to Mary Jeanne Reynales and Corvallis Community Theatre, I've seen the play. The adaptation only strengthens it. My recommendation? See both.

Original Screenplay: "Frozen River": Because it's so, so original

GT city editor Theresa Novak's picks:

Best Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire": It's really close between this an "The Reader," but this was a ground-breaking movie.

Actress: Kate Winslet in "The Reader": This was an unbelievable performance in a ground-breaking film. For so long, every film having to deal with the atrocities of the Holocaust has merely shown the people responsible as embodiments of evil. But now we understand how evil springs from fear and ignorance and a pathetic willingness - need - to believe that everyone else in authority knows better. I can't remember a movie that provoked as much post-viewing conversation and debate as this one among my friends who have seen it.

Animated Film: "Bolt": This movie managed to be both entertaining and thought-provoking. I don't usually remember animated films once I leave the theater, but I recall a lot of innovative things happening with this one.

Cinematography: "Slumdog Millionaire": This movie looked like no other I've seen. I cannot praise it enough.

Directing: "Slumdog Millionaire": The director is responsible for bringing off a fairy-tale kind of story-telling in a fresh an memorable way.

Film Editing: "Slumdog Millionaire":I couldn't take my eyes off this movie, and I think the editing had a lot to do with it.

Makeup: "The Dark Knight": This is the only one I saw, but it was memorable, in a nightmarish way.

Sound Editing: "Wall-E": Very imaginative use of unusual sounds to lend meaning to the antics of a robot.

Visual Effects: "The Dark Knight"

Adapted Screenplay: "The Reader": I don't generally like the idea that someone who wrote the screenplay should get an Oscar when the author of the book that made the movie possible gets nothing, but the script was great.

Original Screenplay: "In Bruges": This was an awesome movie, and overlooked.

Entertainer reporter Brandon Goldner's comments:

Supporting actor should go to Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" n His performance is not overrated. There are subtleties he brings to this film which are nearly indescribable; his gait, his hands, his voice, enunciation Some of it is on full display, but some of it is so far beneath the surface that only by watching the movie three or four times do you pick up on all of it, and even then one isn't inclined to believe that he's even acting. It's like watching 24, but with one cast member who doesn't know the gunfire isn't simulated. From scene to scene, Ledger brings the attention back to him even when the director wanted us to be focusing on something else; because of this, parts of the movie seem to slip our attention while we're fascinated with this deranged man, half-caked in makeup, taunting Batman to punch him in the face: "I want you to do it! I want you to do it!"

And we believe him. After Ledger's performance, there may as well not be another joker. He took the character and pushed it to its logical conclusion by making him equally more and less human, a greater and lesser character that we can relate to on both a deeper and more superficial level. The question we're left with isn't whether or not Ledger was able to craft a part that simultaneously overshadowed the main character and brought a greater strength to the film because of it, but how. It's a shame that we'll never have another opportunity to ask.

Best Film should NOT go to "Slumdog Millionaire" n This movie is filled with moments which touch us, help us empathize with the characters, and draw us deeper into the story. Unfortunately, most of these moments occurred during the first two-thirds of the film.

Following the main character, his brother, and his young love interest as small children, we can see the struggle they face and the conditions they're forced to make the best of after the boys' mother is killed. The possibility that it's a fabricated story never crosses our mind, not even when they inexplicably are riding on top of a train, full speed, one repelling down a rope held by the other in hopes of crawling through the window and grabbing a scrap of food. We don't blink when we see the boys, now young men, burst through the doors of a brothel and rescuing the girl, Latika, and shoot the man holding her captive. Nobody even bats an eyelash when the main character, Jamal, intentionally jumps into the vat of an open toilet in hopes of catching a glimpse of his favorite movie star (and, covered in feces, scores his autograph).

But when we start seeing Jamal as older, following Latika to the posh, McMansion-style home where she unwillingly lives with her husband, we wonder. Even more so when we start seeing the throngs of Indians flocking to their television sets to see how Jamal fares on the final question of the TV show for which the movie is partially names. Even the moon landing didn't cause miles-long traffic jams.

It's too bad that such a strong and varied story seemed to devolve as the minutes ticked by, and the post-credit dance sequence with doubtlessly leave most people in a rigor-mortise cringe, their hands drawn to claws and desperately trying to cover their eyes from the end of the movie which, give or take 35 minutes, would have been really wonderful.

Entertainer editor Nancy Raskauskas' picks:

I'm the contrarian and I don't care. These are the offbeat movies that I enjoyed and wish would win awards.

Best Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire"

Actor: Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor"

Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight"

Actress: Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married"

Supporting Actress: Amy Adams in "Doubt"

Animated Film: None. Better luck next year.

Art Direction: "The Duchess"

Cinematography: "The Dark Knight"

Costume Design: "Australia"

Directing: "Frost/Nixon"

Documentary Feature: "Man on Wire"

Documentary Short: Not sure. On my "need to watch" list.

Editing: "The Dark Knight"

Foreign Language Film: "Waltz With Bashir"

Makeup: "The Dark Knight"

Score: "Defiance"

Song: "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire"

Animated Short: Not sure. On my "need to watch" list.

Live Action Short: Not sure. On my "need to watch" list.

Sound Editing: "The Dark Knight"

Sound Mixing: "The Dark Knight"

Visual Effects: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Adapted Screenplay: "Doubt"

Original Screenplay: "Happy-Go-Lucky": This film should have been nominated in several other categories. It deserves to win at least this one.

For more information on the Academy Awards see www.oscar.com.

And check back Monday for updated stories and a slide show of images from the big night.