2009 Best Picture Field In Advance

I find predicting the Oscars way out (like, 363 days prior to the show) rather fun. To maybe look at this naive post hundreds of days from now, the day after a new film has joined the elite club of Best Picture, will certainly be interesting.

Now, I'm going to purely base these five films off of the cast, director, screenwriters, early word, potential and my good ole' gut. And the nominees are...

• "Untitled Nelson Mandela Project" - Eastwood had somewhat of an off-year in terms of Oscars in 2008, yet I doubt that will be the case this year. This seems like the perfect Oscar movie. A biopic. Clint Eastwood. Morgan Freeman. Clint Eastwood with Morgan Freeman. It all adds up, and for me, this is the early frontrunner. Which is a curse (hear that, Revolutionary Road?)

• "Taking Woodstock" - The cast is great in an odd way. I'm a Paul Dano and Emile Hirsch fan. Then you have Imelda Staunton and Liev Schreiber to provide veteran actor stability. If this film is a success with the Oscars, one or more of these intriguing actors should get a nod. Plus, the writing-directing team of James Schamus and Ang Lee rarely, if ever, fails. A "sure bet" is a total stretch at this point, yet Taking Woodstock is possibly the most promising and...definite? of these five films.

• "The Informant" - Steven Soderbergh's rise back to Oscar love? Perhaps. It has Damon and the writer of The Bourne Ultimatum. The question is: what genre is this, really? It's a comedy. Oscar no-no. Then it's also a crime-drama and a thriller (and this is all according to IMDb and early word...) then it's written by the writer of one of the best action films of the decade. In the end, though, this looks like it will be a quality film, so the genre won't matter if it's just plain good. Damon is my early favorite for Best Actor.

• "The Tree of Life" - It isn't a smart idea to put your money down on Terrence Malick getting Oscar love. Yet the story seems accessible enough for the Oscars to like it. It has a strong cast with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. It centers around the relationship of a father and son during the fifties. If executed just right, this has sky-high potential.

• "Amelia" - Seems like a cliche choice, just I couldn't resist. It's like the Nelson Mandela movie. It fits a profile of what the Oscars like. I do hope this film can make it far, for I'd like to see long-time director Mira Nair finally get some deserved Oscar recognition. It also has Hilary Swank in the title role (hopefully she won't win her third consecutive Oscar...) and Ewan MacGregor, who may be a lead. Yes, I'd rather Inglorious Basterds fill this spot, but I just cannot see that happening.

These five above films kinda bore me, save for Tree of Life and Taking Woodstock. Yet the fact of the matter is that there is no way I'm right. Maybe that's sounding too definite, but there will certainly be one Slumdogesque movie that we discover at some film festival. And there are plenty of other wild cards, like, maybe, 'Basterds or Where the Wild Things Are or Nine or Away We Go. But for now, I'm going to be general and boring. The thing is, at this point, I have absolutely no clue as to how this year will shape up.

And now, for the next few months, screw the Oscars.