The Mad Professah Lectures

Sir Anthony Hopkins, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991 for playing Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs is clearly trying to follow the footsteps of fellow uber-thespian Meryl Streep by physically transforming himself in the likeness of a well-known historical figure for his next role in order to win another Oscar.

The picture above shows Hopkins looking astonishingly similar to renowned film director Alfred Hitchcock. Hopkins is set to star in the film Hitchcock, which is about the making of the film's seminal film Psycho. Oscar winner and MadProfessah-fave Helen Mirren also appears in the film, along with Scarlett Johannsen, James D'Arcy, Toni Collette and others.

MadProfessah correctly predicted 7 out of 8 of the top 2007 Academy Awards.

Best Picture: The Departed
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Best Supporting Actress Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Best Original Screenplay Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
Best Adapted Screenplay William Monahan, The Departed

Films winning multiple Oscars were:
The Departed 4 Oscars (Picture, Directing, Adapted Screenplay, Editing)
Pan's Labyrinth 3 Oscars (Art Direction, Cinematography, Makeup)
An Inconvenient Truth 2 Oscars (Song, Documentary)
Dreamgirls 2 Oscars (Supporting Actress, Sound Mixing)
Little Miss Sunshine 2 Oscars (Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay)

The biggest surprises of the evening were Arkin's win over Murphy (Norbit, anyone?), Germany's The Lives of Others win over Mexico's Pan's Labyrinth and Dreamgirls loss in Best Costume Design to Marie Antoinette.

MadProfessah's Oscar nomination prediction accuracy rate in the Top 8 categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay) was an impressive 29 out of 40, or 72.5%. EW.com has a very cool Flash-powered game where you can enter EW's Oscars prediction contest. The awards ceremony will be hosted by Ellen Degeneres and broadcast next Sunday February 25th at 5pm from The Kodak Theater in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.

Best Picture











Of course the major story here is what I like to call in my classes the Wideman question, i.e. "What's not here?" or "What's left out?" The answer is Dreamgirls! In my opinion, it was the Best Picture of the Year. Although I have seen a lot of movies in the last year, I only saw Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima in the last week but I can't say that I was overly impressed with either of these films enough to endorse their Best Picture worthiness.

If I go with the film that I enjoyed the most while watching it I would have to vote for Little Miss Sunshine though I must admit that I felt that there were moments of "Damn! That's good film making" while watching The Departed (for the intricacy of William Monahan's script), Babel (for the impact of Gustavo Santolalla's heart-tugging score) and The Queen (for the amazing Helen Mirren's transformation into Queen Elizabeth II). Sadly, I felt no transcendent moments while watching Letters from Iwo Jima ("Oscar voters snubbed Dreamgirls for this?" this weekend.

Anyway, many Oscar prognosticators have forecast a win by Babel for Best Picture on Sunday while others have gone for The Departed or Little Miss Sunshine. Anyway, Oscar ballots had to be in by Tuesday February 20th. Here are my picks:

SHOULD WIN: Little Miss Sunshine
WILL WIN: The Departed

Best Director

• Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
• Stephen Frears, The Queen
• Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
• Martin Scorsese, The Departed
• Paul Greengrass, United 93
  
  SHOULD WIN: Stephen Frears, The Queen
  WILL WIN: Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Actress

• Penelope Cruz, Volver
• Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
• Helen Mirren, The Queen
• Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
• Kate Winslet, Little Children
  
  SHOULD WIN: Helen Mirren, The Queen
  WILL WIN: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Actor

• Leonardo Dicaprio, Blood Diamond
• Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
• Peter O'Toole, Venus
• Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
• Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
  
  SHOULD WIN: Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
  WILL WIN: Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Supporting Actress

• Adriana Barraza, Babel
• Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
• Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
• Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
• Rinko Kicuchi, Babel



SHOULD WIN: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
WILL WIN: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Best Supporting Actor

• Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
• Jackie Early Haley, Little Children
• Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
• Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
• Mark Wahlberg, The Departed
  
  SHOULD WIN: Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
  WILL WIN: Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls

Best Original Screenplay

• Guilllermo Arriaga, Babel
• Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis, Letters From Iwo Jima
• Peter Morgan, The Queen
• Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine
• Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
  
  SHOULD WIN: Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
  WILL WIN: Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines and Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
• Todd Field and Tom Perrota, Little Children
• Patrick Marber, Notes on a Scandal
• Alfonso Cuarón and Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, Children of Men
• William Monahan, The Departed
  
  SHOULD WIN: William Monahan, The Departed
  WILL WIN: William Monahan, The Departed