Some very welcomed surprises, some upsets and the rest we already knew

Thank god the Academy has some surprises left for us every year; some are good and some are bad. Here are some of my thoughts:

• Picture: Apparently Clint found his way here. This feels like last year´s Munich. We thought Letters from Iwo Jima is dead, but here it is (just like Munich). I´m surprised that Dreamgirls did not get in but somehow I had that feeling (but no guts to drop it).
• Director: I am extremely happy that Paul Greengrass got nominated. I had him on my list for a really long time but after losing my faith I had to drop him as there did not seem to be enough support from the Guilds. With Oscars you will have to give up your own preferences (and hopes) and just follow the buzz; but sometimes these things still might come true.
• Actor: First of all: Academy, please change your rules and let there be more than one nomination/actor in a same acting category. This rule is ancient and stupid. There are years with many good performances from the same actor in the same category. Look what you did for Leo! He is now nominated for Blood Diamond instead for The Departed. So, please do change the rules and let the leading roles be leading and supporting roles be supporting.
• Actor in supporting role: I was hoping both Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg to be nominated for The Departed but now Mark replaced Jack. I cannot be too disapointed but I was hoping to see Jack again in the Oscars. Hopefully he will be representing atleast. He is the heart of the show; if you did not know that - please watch this year´s Golden Globes, watch and learn.
  
• Adapted screenplay: As I already wrote, this category was diffult to predict. I knew Children of Men would be nominated but I did not know which one to leave out.
  
• Original screenplay and foreign film: I am surprised that Volver was left out from both original screenplay and especially foreign film categories. I guess it had to make room for Pan´s Labyrinth which ended up with six nominations. I am very happy for Pan´s Labyrinth! I haven´t seen it but everyone seem to love it.
• Original score: Well this is interesting; one completely correct prediction, two completely wrong predictions and two right composers with wrong films.

And how did I do? As I already knew in advance. Not so well: The big six was ok but the big eight; I did so poorly with the screenplays. And the rest; i don´t know where to begin. But this was a diffult year and apparently after a good year comes a diffult year. And after a difficult year comes; well, who knows.

• The big eight: 32/40 (80%)
  
• 21 categories (not including Animated short, Live action short film, Documentary short): 65/99 (65,7 %)