There we some worthy nominations this year and some real duds that we just don’t quite understand. Since we didn’t see everything, we won’t even attempt to make all the picks. But for fun we want to go on record with the following picks from the categories where we actually watched the movies

Best Actor: Sean Penn. Mickey Rourke is great in the Wrestler too but Penn just became Milk. It also helps that Milk is a much better movie overall. In a battle of the Indies the Wrestler would be the clear winner and Rourke would take home an award. Although we love Clint in Grand Torino but are biased since it was shot in Michigan.

Best Actress: Kate Winslet. Actually, we didn’t see any of her competition. We just like Kate Winslet.

Best Movie: Slumdog Millionaire. Here is a movie that could have been a total disaster. The premise is ridiculous but somehow they pull it off. The story is very satisfying from beginning to end and runs the gamut of emotions whether frightened out of your skull for the young kids about to be exploited or laughing at the shout-out to Bollywood at the end. It’s possibly the freshest movie of the year and just a blast in its entirety. Unlike “Buttons” which had us checking our watch multiple times in spite of its masterful production.

Okay so clearly we need to get out more. But for the record, we’ve been singing the praises of Slumdog way before it became trendy.