Owen Gleiberman, film critic for Entertainment Weekly magazine, with his picks, and predictions, for this year's Academy Awards.

For Best supporting Actress, I'd give the award to Mo'Nique, for her laceratingly honest and complex performance as the mother in Precious. And by now, it's a no-brainer that she'll take home the award.

For Best supporting actor, my choice would be Christoph Waltz, who in Inglourious Basterds played the devious SS colonel Hans Landa with a sublime mischief and cunning. As everyone in the world has already predicted, he'll win the award as well.

For best adapted screenplay, I'd give the award to Up in the Air, which spins Walter Kirn's novel into a wistful new kind of corporate screwball tragicomedy. And I predict it will win. For best original screenplay, my choice would be Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's most spellbinding act of high-wire audacious dialogue since Pulp Fiction. I think the Academy will agree; it's about time that Quentin won one of those coveted filmmaking Oscars.

For Best Actress, I'd give the award to Meryl Streep, who in Julie & Julia created a fascinating, driven woman beneath her irresistible impersonation of Julie Child's vocal mannerisms. I predict, however, that the award will go to Sandra Bullock, whose performance in The Blind Side, while to me not nearly as good as her best comedy work, gives Hollywood the occasion to salute the Bullock brand.

For Best Actor, I'd give the award to George Clooney, who in Up in the Air gave a performance, to me, on the level of the legendary studio stars. I predict, though, that this is finally the year Hollywood will recognize Jeff Bridges, and who could complain, given that his performance as a boozing, broken-down country singer in Crazy Heart is a magnificent piece of acting.

For Best director, I'd give the award to Jason Reitman, for his masterly orchestration of Up in the Air. But I think there's no question it's going to go to Kathryn Bigelow, whose hair-trigger work in The Hurt Locker created a quiveringly authentic and wounding suspense.

And finally, while Up in the Air is my choice for movie of the year, I predict that the Oscar for Best Picture will go to,you heard it here, Avatar. I'm not its biggest fan, but if the Academy snubs James Cameron's game-changing megasmash 3-D visionary fantasy, all to honor an Iraq war film that grossed just $13 million, it will be as if Hollywood had changed its spots. And that's something Hollywood just doesn't do.