The biggest awards show of the year — the 80th Annual Academy Awards — will air live this Sunday, February 24 at 5pm PT/8pm ET.

Assembled here at Geeks of Doom for this Oscar Round Table to tell us who they want to win this Sunday night are three trusted movie geeks …

– Molly Celaschi
head writer at Horror Yearbook and contributing writer at Fearzone
– The Rub
Geeks of Doom contributing writer
– Dr. Royce Clemens
Geeks of Doom contributing writer

Cate Blanchett – I’m Not There
Ruby Dee – American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan – Atonement
Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton

Molly’s Pick: Cate Blanchett – I’m Not There

This is the toughest category this year. I really want Cate Blanchett to win simply because she can play a man better than most men can. But I am pretty sure she won’t win. I cannot really stand the thought of Ruby Dee winning. Saoirse Ronan was barely on screen and is too young. So it comes down to Ryan and Swinton. I will have to choose Ryan because the Academy loves Mystic River-y type roles and Swinton is too”¦ “uncool” or different for LA’s taste. People will not want to see her onstage even if she deserves it. And I will be amused if Ryan wins because her character talked about cocks and said “N**** please” to a White guy.

The Rub’s Pick: Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone

For my money, it’s hard to compete with the year Amy Ryan had. Between Dan In Real Life, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, and Gone Baby Gone, she epitomized all levels of family dysfunction. And none of them finer than as Helene McCready in Gone Baby Gone. For me, the part that that earned the nomination came at the very end of the movie. After going back and forth between being hateful and heartbroken, and after everything happened the way that it did, she seemed to just pick back up where she started as if nothing happened. It’s not only the saddest part, but the reason she should win.

Royce’s Pick: Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone

I almost want to give this to Ruby Dee, because even though I didn’t like American Gangster all that much, there are a few things I’m just sentimental about, and a lady who’s been kicking ass of fifty years winning her first Oscar is one of them. But when judging on pure ability, Amy Ryan takes the cake. Her wonderful performance as a Boston mother who’s lost her child is this fascinating, hazy nexus where white trash collides head-on with guilt and morality.

Casey Affleck – The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem – No Country For Old Men
Hal Holbrook – Into The Wild
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Charlie Wilson’s War
Tom Wilkinson – Michael Clayton

Molly’s Pick: Javier Bardem – No Country For Old Men

Easy. Javier Bardem. No explanation is necessary. He is tops. The best scene is when he appears to have an orgasm after strangling a deputy. But I am annoyed that Sacha Baron Cohen and his big man package were not nominated for Sweeney Todd.

The Rub’s Pick: Javier Bardem – No Country For Old Men

This is probably the most stacked of any category this year. The best part is that any one of them picking up the trophy on Oscar night would be much deserved. The worst part is that none of them stand a chance against Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men. The perfect mix of Coen quirkiness and pure evil that only Bardem could realize; this is the best movie villain of the decade. He perfectly embodies the violence that Tommy Lee Jones’ Sheriff Bell tries so desperately to understand. There is a reason we always root for the bad guy, and Anton Chigurh is it.

Royce’s Pick: Casey Affleck – The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

In the year of Javier and his magical, mystical bowl-cut, I’m more comfortable giving this one to Casey Affleck. While Bardem depended more on the reactions of the rest of the cast to make his performance, Affleck is a seething mountain of resentment and near-lust that forced the rest of the movie to conform around him. For my money, this is the best male performance of 2007.

Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie – Away From Her
Marion Cotillard – La Vie En Rose
Laura Linney – The Savages
Ellen Page – Juno

Molly’s Pick: Marion Cotillard – La Vie En Rose

Marion Cotillard knocked my socks off. She is so young and yet seems so wise for her age. It wasn’t so much that she played a character, but that she seemed in tune with the emotions that this person would go through”¦even as an aging sickly woman. And cross off Blanchett, Linney, and Page right away. They will not even come close. Blanchett was better in I’m Not There, nobody saw Linney’s The Savages, and Page basically acted like herself in Juno. So that leaves a very tough call between Christie and Cotillard. Unfortunately, I don’t think Cotillard will win for a number of reasons, but the most important are that nobody likes the French and Lionsgate is heading up distribution for Away From Her. And whereas Rose‘s Picturehouse has a very lax approach to marketing, Lionsgate is ferocious.

The Rub’s Pick: Julie Christie – Away From Her

You can’t compete with Christie’s Fiona. Not only is there a stamp of authenticity to her performance, but depth unseen by the other nominees. This is more than just a sad portrait of illness; Christie literally disappears into the role. As much as I hate the Academy awarding people based on the merit of their career alone, at least you can rest assured this one deserves it.

Royce’s Pick: Marion Cotillard – La Vie En Rose

It was damn close for me between Christie and Cotillard, but it was Cotillard as French torch singer Edith Piaf that had that unique brand of gutsy, rip-your-guts-out acting that got Ellen Burstyn and Gena Rowlands Oscars back in the day. This woman has been acting for ten years, so when I throw comparisons to those titans in the mix, you best be DAMN sure I mean it.

George Clooney – Michael Clayton
Daniel Day Lewis – There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones – In The Valley Of Elah
Viggo Mortenson – Eastern Promises

Molly’s Pick: Johnny Depp – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

I know a lot of people claim that Johnny Depp played Sweeney like Edward Scissorhands, which was also made with Tim Burton. But I feel quite the opposite. Maybe because I have seen Edward oh say 100 times now, and I feel like I know it inside and out. I don’t care about appearances and you shouldn’t either. Depp played Sweeney like a man who is only half human and Depp played Edward like a half man who is very much human. But Daniel Day Lewis will win. I disagree with this because I think HE played his character most like a previous one, namely The Butcher from Gangs of New York. But shit, it was fun to watch him smack around people.

The Rub’s Pick: Daniel Day Lewis – There Will Be Blood

Like the supporting category, this is full of a lot of pretty good performances. Viggo Mortenson is just fine in Eastern Promises. George Clooney is fine, but Michael Clayton seems like George Clooney without the alcoholic fun of an Ocean‘s shoot. As much as I would love for Johnny Depp to win his first Oscar for Sweeney Todd, none of these performances hold a candle to Daniel Day Lewis’ in There Will Be Blood. Daniel Plainview is the most compelling character to grace the screen in ages. Critics from mainstream to unpaid internet humps alike will be talking about this as one of the best and most deserved Oscar wins 20 years from now.

Royce’s Pick: Daniel Day Lewis – There Will Be Blood

I actually need to go in depth on this one? This role is the only one that couldn’t have been played by any of the other four actors. Do the math. NEXT!

Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Molly’s Pick: Atonement

Sigh. Why is Juno even on this list? I loved Atonement. Keira Knightley and James McAvoy as lovers torn apart — What’s not to love? And don’t call me sappy because I loved the narrative structure. While people in the theater were confused about scenes repeating, I went nuts over the difference shown between someone’s assumed reality and another person’s real reality of the exact same situation. Genius. And it also features one of the best twist endings ever that is conveniently NOT a cheat. Oh and it has the BEST SEX SCENE EVER!

The Rub’s Pick: There Will Be Blood

The Academy Award for Best Picture should go to the best picture, and there hasn’t been a movie released this decade that was better than There Will Be Blood. It is a masterpiece of epic proportion driven by one of the best acting performances I have seen in my lifetime. I think for the first time in his career the aspirations of Paul Thomas Anderson are finally realized on screen. Deep down, this movie is as American as apple pie. All of the themes represented are more alive today than in the period the story of the movie is told. The struggle between good and evil and the ambiguity of everyone’s definitions of each are the driving force behind everything in this film. This movie will be picked apart and dissected for years to come and in the end the only conclusion that can be deducted is one that is already forgone — this film is a masterpiece.

Royce’s Pick: There Will Be Blood

Of the five Picture nominees, one is outright terrible, one is really good, two are great”¦ And then there’s There Will Be Blood. This movie combined the old school, physical craftsmanship of sheer movie making with a youthful, go-for-broke enthusiasm. Paul Thomas Anderson seemed to risk his talent, more than exercise it. He didn’t want to make money or win awards. He had a Mad Prophet zeal and wanted to change the FUCKING WORLD!

Molly’s Pick: Best Makeup – Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald – La Vie En Rose

I couldn’t believe the transformation from pretty actress to frightening singer and from frightening singer to really old singer. (I predict that Royce will say something like Ratatouille should win Best Screenplay).

The Rub’s Pick: Best Director – Paul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood

I would love to see Paul Thomas Anderson win Best Director. The man channels Altman and Kubrick better than Altman and Kubrick sometimes. He’s been nominated 3 times as a writer, but is getting his first crack at a directorial Oscar this year. It will be fitting if he loses so he can stay in the same illustrious underground club of non-winners like his mentors, but the geek in me wants to see him take old Oscar from the Coen’s and disappear into the night for the next 5 years until he unveils his next classic.

Royce’s Pick: Best Original Score – Michael Giacchino – Ratatouille

No one of the film score tip has been so consistently impressive in such a short amount of time as Michael Giacchino. He did the score for The Incredibles, which is the best score I’ve heard in recent memory, and that creepy, intense feeling you get when you watch Lost? He’s halfway responsible for it, as he does the music for every episode. And his work on Ratatouille truly adds to the atmosphere of king-hell fun that the movie provided.

Molly’s Pick: Best Picture – Juno

Juno for Best Picture, followed closely by Ellen Page for Best Actress and Ruby Dee for Best Supporting Actress. As for Worst Snubs: James McAvoy (Atonement) for Best Actor, Sweeney Todd for Best Picture, and Sacha Baron Cohen (Sweeney Todd) for Best Supporting Actor. And I absolutely loved the scary ass tingling music in There Will Be Blood, but Royce told me it is illegal for them to get nominated for Best Musical Score. I don’t think a score has scared me as much since The Shining or haunted me as much since Requiem For A Dream.

The Rub’s Pick: Best Actress – Ellen Page – Juno

Ellen Page in Juno, hands down. First of all, after hearing how great this movie was I was terribly disappointed when I finally saw it. Especially when at center stage is Page’s Juno. I don’t see the point or the enjoyment out of watching some snot-nosed twit bitch and complain about anything and everything. One could interject that she simply played the character how it was written, making it less her fault than Diablo Cody’s screenplay. That’s only part right. My problem is that Page could have played her with some more realism. Both Juno and Page handled their situation about as well as a group of retards in a room full of bouncy balls. And both deserve equally twisted fates for it.

Royce’s Pick: Best Original Screenplay – Diablo Cody – Juno

Oh sweet Jesus, do I hate Juno. I could have picked the Best Picture nod, or Ellen Page’s desperate clinging to the one note for my pick for the worst nomination of the year, but Page has been impressive before and Juno could have gone right with a better script. Packed to the gills with pop culture references and not much else, Diablo Cody’s screenplay to Juno is the biggest fraud perpetrated on the moviegoing public in the past ten years. Remember Penny Lane from Almost Famous? Now imagine her really, really hateful, snide and with typing ability, and you’ll get to the level of Cody’s screenplay. And if you try saying “Honest to blog” in front of me, I’m stapling your nuts to the side of your leg.