Oscar Ballot 2010. Best Male Acting.

So here they are, my long awaited predictions for this year's Oscar's, thanks to my readership for their unrelenting patience.

BEST ACTOR

I tend to compare roles and situations, so Colin Firth, in A Single Man, portraying this year's gay conflict, is the equivalent of last year's Sean Penn's Harvey Milk... though not quite. To get an Oscar you have to a) Play the role of a lifetime or b) Play a role that makes a movie truly relevant, so in this case, I think Colin Firth comes close, but this year's gay conflict really doesn't get us rooting for the gay cause as much as last year's... bad break! (not back-break... Brokeback).

On the other hand, we have Jeff Bridges as.... Bad Blake, (go figure), whose role I'd say is similar to last year's Mickey Rourke's Wrestler. Bridges's performance is truly heartbreaking as it makes us wonder about the ways we often go wrong and how painful it'd be not to take charge in time and fix them. This is a truly touching role, emotionally, of course. (Last year, Sean Penn seemed to be, as well, truly touching... both emotionally and physically).

Then we have of course two roles that I won't dismiss for both the emotion they convey and the relevance they play, in what, to me, are the best movies of the season. Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker, and George Clooney in Up in the Air. I think you always have to have this level of good acting to move the story forward with the emotion it's meant to carry, both roles are truly outstanding as one of Clooney's top 2 and quite frankly, I had never even heard of Renner before this movie... So I take my hat off for both of them too.

As for Sir Morgan Freeman (at least I know he'd be called that if he was British), I can't give you my opinion as I haven't watched Invictus.

My convinced vote goes to Jeff Bridges. Honorary mention: George Clooney, his role seems to genuine to me and I think it was an excellent casting for Up in the Air. I wouldn't mind it a bit, though, if Jeremy Renner won halfway through The Hurt Locker's race against Avatar for the very coveted best picture statuette.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Not only did I not watch most of the movies nominated in this category, but the two I watched, didn't strike me as truly outstanding. I guess the American public is fascinated by a character that will make you hate him in several different languages, because hate is not an easy thing to achieve so, come Oscar night, Cristoph Waltz as the Nazi polyglot from Inglourious Basterds very well might take it up one notch and make the rest of the nominees hate him too.

I can say this, the only other role I watched in this category was Christopher Plummer as Leo Tolstoy. I must admit, I did like his role, but as I said before nothing was truly outstanding.... In this category, I abstain from voting... of course, though, my money is on Christo.....