Vulture’s Final Oscar-Nomination Predictions

As our Golden Globe prognostication should have made clear, we truly have no idea what we’re talking about when we make awards predictions. For instance: This week every blogger in creation is talking about how Atonement is in free fall and won’t get a Best Picture nomination. It was shut out of the Producers Guild awards. But it won the Golden Globe and collected fourteen BAFTA nominations. So is Atonement on the decline or on an upswing? Hell if we know. That’s the fun of it!

So here are our guaranteed-to-be-wrong final Oscar predictions. Anyone who uses these predictions in order to place a bet deserves what he gets.

Nominations:
Atonement
Into the Wild
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men

Dark horse:
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Nominations:
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Ethan and Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men
Sean Penn, Into the Wild
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joe Wright, Atonement

Dark horse:
Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd

Nominations:
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
James McAvoy, Atonement
Denzel Washington, American Gangster

Dark horse:
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

Nominations:
Julie Christie, Away From Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley, Atonement
Ellen Page, Juno

Dark horse:
Amy Adams, Enchanted

Nominations:
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
John Travolta, Hairspray
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Dark horse:
Tommy Lee Jones, No Country for Old Men

Nominations:
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Catherine Keener, Into the Wild
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Dark horse:
Jennifer Garner, Juno

Nominations:
Atonement
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Zodiac

Dark horse:
Away From Her

Nominations:
Juno
Knocked Up
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

Dark horse:
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days