the nominees for this year's oscar awards have been announced, and i am very much pleased with the list of nominees (http://oscar.com/nominees/nominees.html). and a month more to go before the final winners will be awarded the golden boy. if you're rooting for any particular movie/actor/actress/director, post your thoughts and observations in this thread.

i actually never watched all the films included in this year's nominations yet (maybe soon, before feb27), but i am picking my favorites this early: best actor - a toss between johnny depp and leo dicaprio. i've seen them both in superb performances when they were younger ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape?"), and i would assume that over the years, their performances matured immensely to grab an oscar this time. for best actress, i'll go for hillary swank who i remember best in her portrayal in "Boys Don't Cry", as a cross-dressing girl who preferred life in her male identity. my best director pick is martin scorsese, and best picture the aviator.

Definately an impressive list of nominees...Depp and DiCaprio have matured so gracefully over the years, it's really phenomenal. Depp must have been 17 years old when he was the translator in 1986's Platoon...Gosh, he's come a long way. And Leo? Well, let's just say he was in Titanic. That's all there is to it

Come to think of it, Depp has had some very unique rolls. Edward Scissorhands, Jack Sparrow. Neat stuff. Very innovative guy.

video clips of the nominees and their movies can be viewed here. brief synopsis of the movies and the characters the actors/actresses portray can also be found on link provided.