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Best Animated Feature
Cars GGGG, PGA, $ - An ambitious racecar is forced to help a community of other cars on Route 66 while on the way to his big race.
Happy Feet GG, PGA, $ - Penguin Mumbles wants to do what’s in his heart, which is to dance (Motion capture based).
Monster House GG, PGA, $ - Three kids discover that the broken down house across the street is alive.

This competition is very close, but the big name Voice Cast (one of the best ever assembled in this reviewers opinion) and high profile of Pixar films makes Cars the likely winner. This is also the first year since 2000 that the entire category is made up of computer animated films

Best Animated Short
The Danish Poet - German short narrated by Live Ullman (14 min.)
Lifted – A Science Fiction based Pixar Short directed by a Sound Designer for Disney and George Lucas (5 min.)
The Little Match Girl – Hans Christan Anderson’s tale of a girl that sells matches to survive the winter. (7 min.)
Maestro - 5 Minutes before his big performance, something goes wrong for the Maestro and his assistant. (5 Min.)
No Time For Nuts - Crazy squirrell Scrat (from the Ice Age films) encounters a time machine. (5 min.)(on DVD for Ice Age 2: The Meltdown)

Although Lifted has the Pixar edge, look for Disney’s version of Little Match Girl to go all the way. It was the only part of Fantasia 2006 to be completed before the project was scrapped by Disney and was subsequently placed on the re-release DVD of The Little Mermaid. Since it was from a Fantasia film originally, Match Girl all plays to String Quartet No. 2 in D Major: Third Movement: Noturno (Andante) by Alexander Borodin.

Best Short Subject
Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea) - Spain (30 min.)
Eramos Pocos (One Too Many) - Spain (16 min.)
Helmer and Son - French (?) (13 min.)
The Savior - Austrailia (17 min.)
West Bank Story - U.S. (20 min.)

Information is hard to come by for many of these films, however Las Vegas Oddsmakers give West Bank the best odds at three times as much as the other nominees. With the exception of the U.S. shot West Bank Story, all of the nominees are from abroad, and even then the musical comedy West Bank takes place in (wait for it) the West Bank. Though normally the nominees in the ‘Shorts’ categories are hard to come by, most of last years nominees were available on the Short Films DVD which is still available to buy or rent at many stores.

Best Documentary (Feature)
+ An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore’s campaign to make Global Warming a globally recognized problem.
Deliver Us From Evil - Pedophile priest Father Oliver O’Grady and his movments as allowed by the California Archdiose over a period of 30 years.
Iraq in Fragments - Stories from modern Iraq as told by Iraqis.
Jesus Camp - Kids attending a summer camp to become the next Billy Grahm.
My Country, My Country - A Sunni Ara Doctor’s election campaign in Iraq in early 2005.

Though I don’t like bringing politics into my analysis, the popularity of Al Gore (rather than his film) is likely to give Truth an edge here.

Probably the most politically charged category this year, covering the war in Iraq, Global Warming, and religion in America. Although all valid subjects and are probably well done (I’m not able to see all of these), Inconvenient Truth will win because of the attention it has received and Box Office.

Best Documentary (Short Subject)
The Blood of Yingzhou District - A year in the life of AIDS orphans in the Anhui province of China. (39 min.)
Recycled Life - Story of the families living next to the most toxic landfill in Central America. (38 min.)
Rehearsing a Dream - A number of 17 year old performers study under Vanessa Williams, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Michael Tilson Thomas. (34 min.)
Two Hands - The story of pianist Leon Fleischer, who damaged his hands from ‘over-preparing’ for a Brahms piece. (18 min.)

Not having seen these myself, I can only judge based on past behaviour of the Academy towards this category. The Academy tends to like films about performers, but with two such films covering this subject, the vote is likely to split and go towards Recycled Life, given the attention An Inconvenient Truth is getting this year in the Feature category.

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