| BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY |
| Pan's Labyrinth |
| The Prestige |
| The Black Dahlia |
| Guillermo Navarro |
| Wally Pfister |
| Vilmos Zsigmond |
| The film is a visual marvel, no doubt about it. |
| Will the magician flicks cancel each other out? |
| A legend, he snuck in for this mostly overlooked thriller. |
| BEST EDITING |
| Children of Men |
| The Departed |
| United 93 |
| Blood Diamond |
| A. Cuaron, A. Rodriguez |
| Thelma Schoonmaker |
| C. Douglas, C. Rouse |
| Steven Rosenblum |
| Intercutting between musical scenes will get noticed. |
| Thelma's an old Scorsese vet who does great work. |
| The tech category in which it will most likely get nom'd. |
| An unexpected nod, it probably can't win. |
| BEST SCORE |
| The Queen |
| The Good German |
| Alexandre Desplat |
| Thomas Newman |
| He has mutiple chances of getting nom'd in '06. |
| It's a shame that barely anyone saw this movie in theaters. |
| BEST ART DIRECTION |
| Dreamgirls |
| The Prestige |
| The Good Shepherd |
| Pirates of the Carib- bean II |
| John Myhre, Tomas Voth |
| Nate Crowley, J. Ochipinti |
| J. Oppewall and others |
| R. Heinrichs, C. Carasik |
| The period settings and such should make it a winner. |
| I'm glad that this film got some tech recognition. |
| The pic takes place in foreign locales and older eras. |
| Oscar loves its period epics, and this fits the bill. |
| BEST COSTUME DESIGN |
| The Devil Wears Prada |
| Marie- Antoinette |
| Curse of the Golden Flower |
| The Queen |
| Patricia Field |
| Milena Canonero |
| Consolata Boyle |
| It was a film about clothes, so this makes sense. |
| If there was one thing memorable about the movie... |
| Foreign films find their way in here sometimes. |
| Helen Mirren wore the dowdy look well. We'll see. |
| BEST MAKEUP |
| Apoc- alypto |
| Click |
| There was a lot of war-paint and blood. A lot. |
| C'mon -- this Adam Sandler tripe is an Oscar nominee? |
| BEST VISUAL EFFECTS |
| Pirates of the Carib- bean II |
| Superman Returns |
| Poseidon |
| It was the biggest hit of the 3 nominees, so why not? |
| Some critics liked it, others tended to fall asleep. |
| Oscar may have had enough sinking boats. |
| BEST SOUND EDITING |
| Apoc- alypto |
| Letters From Iwo Jima |
| Flags of Our Fathers |
| Pirates of the Carib- bean II |
| Blood Diamond |
| It makes sense for this well-reviewed epic to win. |
| It will probably be passed over for Clint's other film. |
| This sequel seemed to score well with the tech branches. |
| I don't think it has a shot, but I guess you never know. |
| BEST SOUND MIXING |
| Dreamgirls |
| Flags of Our Fathers |
| Pirates of the Carib- bean II |
| Apoc- alypto |
| Blood Diamond |
| It makes sense for a musical to score a nod here. |
| The battle scenes will be remembered for sure. |
| With so many tech nominations, could it win one? |
| There certainly is a wealth of options here this year. |
| I don't think it can compete with the other titles. |
| BEST ORIGINAL SONG |
| Dreamgirls |
| An Incon- venient Truth |
| Cars |
| Dreamgirls |
| "Listen" |
| "I Need to Wake Up" |
| "Patience" |
| It'll be one of the "Dreamgirls" tunes for the win. |
| Melissa Etheridge performs this (but no Al Gore). |
| You can't go wrong with a song from a Disney cartoon. |
| This is the least likely of the 3 to win the statue. |
| Chungmang Ye |
| 2 |
| 4 |
| 2 |
| 5 |
| 3 |
| 2 |
| 5 |
| 3 |
| 5 |
| 4 |
| 2 |
| 1 |
| 4 |
| 5 |
| 3 |
| 2 |
| 2 |
| 4 |
| 3 |
| 1 |
| 3 |
| 4 |
| 5 |
| World War II entries always fare well in this category. |
| 2 |
| 1 |
| 3 |
| 4 |
| 2 |
| 5 |
| 2 |
| "Our Town" |
| 1 |
| 4 |
| 5 |
| 2 |
| 1 |
| 5 |
| The Illusionist |
| Dick Pope |
| The film has a lovely golden glow to it -- very old school. |
| 3 |
| Babel |
| S. Mirrione & others |
| Juggle multiple storylines, get an Oscar nomination. |
| 1 |
| Notes on a Scandal |
| Philip Glass |
| Who doesn't love Philip Glass? Rent Koyaanis- qatsi now. |
| 3 |
| Children of Men |
| Emmanuel Lubezki |
| Non-Best Pic contenders usually get remembered here. |
| 1 |
| Pan's Labyrinth |
| Javier Navarrete |
| Foreign films often make a splash in this field. |
| 1 |
| Babel |
| Gustavo Santaolalla |
| He and the director have collaborated before. |
| 4 |
| Pan's Labyrinth |
| E. Caballero, Pilar Revuelta |
| The film was visually astounding and received 6 nods. |
| 1 |
| Dreamgirls |
| Sharen Davis |
| The '60s and '70s look is well- represented in the pic. |
| 3 |
| Pan's Labyrinth |
| This pic could score well in the tech categories. |
| 1 |
| Dreamgirls |
| "Love You, I Do" |
| It'll be one of the "Dreamgirls" tunes for the win. |
| 3 |