Before you cozy up to the Oscars, I have to put in my two-cents as to who will win – because knowing you’re right is all that matters, right? There has been a crazy race to the 84th Annual Academy Awards this year and right now The Help, The Descendants, Hugo, and The Artist all have great chances at their own respective categories. But who will win?! We’ll find out tomorrow night. Keep reading to find out who I’ve chosen to win!

This year will be quite interesting, yet I could really care less who wins, unlike last year’s Academy Awards. This year’s 2012 Oscar nominees seems closer to winning than previous years, but there are definite sure fire frontrunners as stated above.

I’m not gonna guess them all, mostly because I hadn’t seen any of the docs or shorts. Also because I want this post to be short, so I’ll do the big categories. So let’s just get this under way!

Best Picture

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

My Pick: The Artist

Why: I don’t want it to win really, although it was a pretty good film, it’s just such Oscar bait full of nostalgia that there’s no way it could lose. I’d rather see The Descendants win, but with The Artist winning the Golden Globe award, the DGA award, and critic’s choice, it has a strong case to win.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

• Demian Bichir, A Better Life
• George Clooney, The Descendants
• Jean Dujardin, The Artist
• Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Brad Pitt, Moneyball

My Pick: George Clooney

Why: I think this will be an upset. It is George Clooney’s time and with the recent Oscar voter demographic revealed – nearly 94% Caucasian, 77% male, and a median age of 62 – I’m sure they’d vote for him over Jean Dujardin. Both great performances, but Clooney should win this.

Best Actor In a Supporting Role

• Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
• Jonah Hill, Moneyball
• Nick Nolte, Warrior
• Christopher Plummer, Beginners
• Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

My Pick: Christopher Plummer

Why: No case needed.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

• Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis, The Help
• Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
• Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

My Pick: Meryl Streep

Why: The same reason goes for this as my case with George Clooney. It is Meryl’s time, again. With 17 nominations under her belt, and only two wins – her last in 1983 – it is just her time again, especially for her performance. Yes, Viola Davis was good as well, but that role just seemed to easy compared to filling in the shoes of Margaret Thatcher.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
• Jessica Chastain, The Help
• Mellisa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
• Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
• Octavia Spencer, The Help

My Pick: Octavia Spencer

Why: She has won everything this year during awards season and she had the strongest performance out of all of these women.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
• Hugo, Screenplay by John Logan
• The Ides of March, Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
• Moneyball, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.  Story by Stan Chervin
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

My Pick: The Descendants

Why: The Descendants has a really strong range of emotional depth and strong characters in every direction. The Artist was almost the same rendition of that episode of Family Guy when Stewie joined that acting class with that little girl.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• The Artist, Written by Michel Hazanavicius
• Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
• Margin Call, Written by J.C. Chandor
• Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen
• A Separation, Written by Asghar Farhadi

My Pick: Midnight in Paris

Why: I really would like to have this win more than the others due to it’s originality of course and because it was the most fun. But don’t count out The Artist. Midnight in Paris did win the WGA award, but so did Inception and it lost to The King’s Speech.

Best Director

• Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
• Alexdander Payne, The Descendants
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo
• Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
• Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

My Pick: Michel Hazanvicius

Why: He won the DGA and that is usually the sure tell that he’ll win the Oscar. But it is really close between him, Scorsese, and Payne.

Foreign Language Film

• Belgium, “Bullhead”, Michael R. Roskam, director
• Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar”, Philippe Falardeau, director
• Iran, “A Separation”, Asghar Farhadi, director
• Israel, “Footnote”, Joseph Cedar, director
• Poland, “In Darkness”, Agnieszka Holland, director

My Pick: A Separation

Why: It has won everything else this awards season so why not the Oscar?

Animated Feature Film

• A Cat in Paris, Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
• Chico & Rita, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
• Kung Fu Panda 2, Jennifer Yuh Nelson
• Puss in Boots, Chris Miller
• Rango, Gore Verbinski

My Pick: Rango

Why: I have not seen A Cat in Paris or Chico & Rita, but Rango, in my opinion, was the strongest among the movies I’d seen. If it were up to me, I’d rather see KFP2 win, but that won’t happen.

Music (Original Score)

• The Adventures of Tintin, John Williams
• The Artist, Ludovic Bource
• Hugo, Howard Shore
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Alberto Iglesias
• War Horse, John Williams

My Pick: The Artist

Why: Because it’s The Artist. It relied so heavily on the fact that it was a silent film that the score had to be strong in order for it to work, and it did.

There you have it. Those are my predictions. Let’s see if they hold true. Don’t forget to check in with me tomorrow night as I live blog the winners of the 2012 Oscars with my opinions and such!