Oscar Run --- The Latest

Okay, anyone who knows the Kuhn household knows we take our movies very seriously. That's why every room in our home has at least one favorite movie's poster on the wall - appropriately themed, of course. We take our Oscars even MORE seriously.

This year, we got a late start on our Oscar Run, which consists of seeing all 30 top nominations before the Oscars, making our own three sets of picks - who we think will win, who we WANT to win and who has no chance in hell of winning. In addition, we make up our own lists of nominees and pick our own winners, all before that Sunday evening extravaganza. Well, this year, we were a little behind when the nominees were named that fateful Tuesday morning. We hadn't seen one of the 16 movies comprising those big 30 nominations. Yikes. We knew we had quite a task ahead of us. But we wouldn't let that get in the way. And since then - just 3 1/2 weeks later - we've already knocked off quite a few.

Let's see...

• We've seen 4 Best Actor nominees (Dicaprio in Blood Diamond, Gosling in Half-Nelson, Whitaker in Last King of Scotland and Smith in Pursuit of Happyness) and right now, I'm rooting for Smith. It doesn't look probable we'll make it to O'Toole in Venus, but you never know...
  
• We've seen 4 Best Actress nominees (Mirren in The Queen, Dench in Notes on a Scandal, Winslet in Little Children and Streep in Devil Wears Prada) and we have no intention of seeking out Volver to catch Penelope Cruz -sorry, but no way, Jose. I guess I thought Mirren or Dench were the best but I really don't care about this category this year.
  
• We've seen 4 Supporting Actor nominees (Housou in Blood Diamond, Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine, Murphy in Dreamgirls and Haley in Little Children) We will definitely be seeing Wahlberg in The Departed this next week so I want to refrain for making a pick just yet - I think he's a great actor and it may just be him who takes the prize in my book.
  
• We've seen 3 Supporting Actress nominees (Hudson in Dreamgirls, Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine and Blanchette in Notes on a Scandal) and we'll be seeing Babel this next week which will be the remaining two supporting actress nominees, so the verdict is still out.
  
• We've seen 2 Best Director nominees (United 93 and The Queen) but we'll be seeing The Departed and Babel for sure this next week. We may or may not get to see Letters from Iwo Jima before Oscar night.
  
• And finally, we've seen 2 Best Picture nominees (Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen) and will be weighing in on Babel and The Departed this week - and again, are not sure if we'll get to see Letters before Sunday night.

So, that's how the tally board is looking. I predict when all is said and done that Peter O'Toole and Penelope Cruz will be the lone leftovers and that we'll make it to Clint's Japanese epic, but we'll just have to see...

The Oscar Run continues...