Tonight's Oscar Predictions: The King Speech vs The Social Network

Just to put things into perspective, tonight's 83rd annual Academy Awards ceremony is like the Super Bowl of Hollywood. Many of the greatest actors and actresses in the world have spent all year waiting for this evening's festivities. But the Oscars is more than just a red carpet affair. Its sole purpose in to acknowledge the year's best in cinema. Truly beautiful performances and collaborations that shouldn't go unrecognized. And although you and I can debate over the shoulda, woulda, coulda's, for the most part, the Academy does a stellar job of choosing warranted nominees.

Prior to last month's airing of the Golden Globes, I went a perfect 10 for 10 on my predictions of the major categories. Unfortunately for me, the Oscars are definitely a much more difficult awards ceremony to predict. I've finally finished filling out my ballot for tonight's event. You can see the full list of nominees here and do the same for yourself:


http://www.moviefone.com/oscars-academy-awards/nominee-winner


Now, unlike tonight's airing of the Academy Awards, I will be very brief with my predictions. And the winners are ...


Best Picture: The King's Speech - Mainly my choice because of character likability and the Academy's typical desire to stray away from the norm. I see it winning a close race against the other cinematic powerhouse, The Social Network.

Best Actor: Colin Firth - The King's Speech. A main character overcoming great odds, what more could you want? Unfortunately for James Franco, the academy also has Firth in mind since he was a nominee for Best Actor last year as well.

Best Actress: Natalie Portman - Black Swan. This race will be MUCH closer than people anticipate. Portman is more deserving, yet Annette Bening has all the makings of a viable winner too.

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale - The Fighter. In what should easily be this year's stone cold lock, Bale will win by a significant margin. Given any other set of circumstances, Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech) would be a suitable winner.

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo - The Fighter. Historically speaking, the Best Supporting Actress category is typically the most difficult winner to predict. And although all signs point toward the older, deserving Melissa Leo, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see an upset win from her co-star Amy Adams, or the young Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit).

Best Director: David Fincher - The Social Network. Considering how close of a race it will be for Best Picture, it would be a shock to not see a win for The Social Network in any of the 6 major categories. Although Tom Hooper could be the director giving the "speech" tonight (no pun intended), I'm leaning toward David Fincher.


Other notable winners will be ...


Best Animated Film: Toy Story 3

Best Foreign Film: Biutiful

Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler - The King's Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network


Hopefully we can all enjoy the pair of young hosts tonight (nominee James Franco and Anne Hathaway). It should be an interesting affair nonetheless. Have fun watching the Oscars!