And the winner is...

For years (years) my friend Clare and I have 'done' the Oscars. I'm a good girl, Iyam (a la My Fair Lady) but once a year we pick out the winners...put down our £5 HMV voucher...eat chips and dip...and stay up aaaaaaaall night to watch the glitz and glamour live from La La Land. Usually Clare would take the haul home, but I think once or twice I won. Mostly Clare though. Then I moved to Swansea (as a student) in 1994. I meet The Gilmours...the last 2 of the 8 children (identical twins) are well into the Oscars too and do the same 'we're LDS and we don't bet...but, go on...it's only once a year and within our family' thing. So we amalgamated Oscar betting, and now we always get together on Oscar night. Then I got married to Danny in 99...he joined the throng. And then in 04 we allowed our friend Shaun (in Reading) to join in too (as an avid movie buff)...but he never joins the partay...just throws his guesses and money onto the pile. And Rob married Katie-Jane last year...so she's in too (which is great, cos she's usually worse than I am for her picks! It's not so lonely at the bottom now - LOL!)

And it's tomorrow (is my point). Oscar Party Season is upon us.

Trouble is...I'm so boring haus frau now I never get to see the piggin' films. And my house is a tip (so I'm not even that good a haus frau - LOL!). And Simon, Rob and Katie will be arriving with chips, dip, HMV vouchers and guesses (in Rob's case, all neatly placed on forms in a scary manner) tomorrow evening. (Clare's not coming up from Reading this year).

So...my guesses (which I will update over the weekend...guesses have to be in by 9pm Sunday) are:

Best Film: Brokeback Mountain
Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote
Best Actress: Felicity Huffman - TransAmerica
Supporting Actor: Jake Gyllenhaal - Brokeback Mountain
Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardner
Best Director: Ang Lee
Animated Feature: Wallace & Gromit - Curse of the Were Rabbit
Art Direction: King Kong
Cinematography: Brokeback Mountain
Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha
Documentary Feature: March of the Penguins
Documentary Short: The Death of Kevin Carter
Editing: Munich
Foreign Film: Tsotsi - South Africa
Make Up: The Chronicles of Narnia
Music: Brokeback Mountain
Song: Travelin' Thru - TransAmerica
Short Animation: One Man Band
Short Live Action: Cashback
Sound Editing: King Kong
Sound Mixing: King Kong
Visual Effects: King Kong
Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
Original Screenplay: Good Night & Good Luck (George Clooney & Grant Heslov)

Mmmm...not sure about one or two of them. May change a few. Big sigh.

We have also acquired a little Oscar statuette of our own that goes to the winner to display all year. He's called Bertie because he was first won by Rob in 2004, and my Danny won him last year (oh the head swelling, oh the strutting...oh, the Bertie on top of our TV all year). Perhaps he'll be mine all mine this time. But I doubt it!

Right...off to tidy.