Oscar Nominees: Best Actor in a Leading Role

My predictions: 4/5, picking Hawkes over Jackman
My ballot: Come back next week!
The nominees: Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables), Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), Denzel Washington (Flight)

This category was hardly the most surprising (we’ll get to that, don’t worry) but it still represented, for me, one of the most egregious snubs of the year. John Hawkes gave one of the most wonderful performances I’ve seen in a while in “The Sessions,” a film that earned only costar Hunt a mention. He was certainly more on that Jackman, who I didn’t love, and Cooper and Phoenix, both of whom were pretty good but not the strongest in their films, and, if I had my way, he would have pulled an upset on Day-Lewis and Washington. Based on how well “Amour” did, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Jean-Louis Trintignant here either, but, oh well, the enormous shocks were saved for other races.

My current bet to win: This is definitely Day-Lewis.