Oscar Predictions: Best Sound

Last year’s nominees: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek, Transformers 2

This year’s locks: Inception

Very likely: Toy Story 3

Possible: True Grit, Black Swan, Shutter Island, 127 Hours, Iron Man 2, The Social Network, Tron: Legacy, Unstoppable, Salt, How to Train Your Dragon

Unlikely: So many more.

The rundown: This category often provides an interesting mix of Best Picture contenders and films where only the technical elements tend to get attention. With the exception of “Inception” (how’s that for a tongue-twister?), it’s hard to discern what other contenders might pop up. Animated films usually do well, and otherwise, “True Grit” and “Black Swan” look pretty good, while “Shutter Island” could break through here event if it doesn’t show up in other categories. Beyond that, there are plenty of other films that could sneak through, like “Inglourious Basterds” did last year. I’m not putting “Iron Man 2” here because the first film didn’t merit a nomination back in 2008.

Forecasted winner: “Inception” in its sweep of the tech categories