Pete Hammond published a great piece today at The Envelope about the sheer confusion of this year's Oscar race, both for us "experts" and, perhaps, for the voters themselves.  I was really taken by Hammond's final comment, however:

"With academy ballots due back in just nine days, it's definitely The Season to see a movie – no matter how you do it.  The candidates are counting on you to get out the vote."

Sadly, there just aren't enough voters that seem to take their roles this seriously.  But it's good to remind them every once in a while.

All of this brings us to the state of this year's race for the various trophies, which is mass confusion to say the least.  As Hammond points out, frontrunners tend to emerge by this time of year, but in the infancy of 2008, we have no idea what film is most likely to take Best Picture.  The same is true in the acting races for the most part.  It's all so up in the air and, to be sure, it's exciting.

I tend to knock off monthly winner predictions elsewhere, but I haven't even bothered doing it with the 2007-08 season because of these peculiarities.  But I've finally taken a leap.  We'll see where I land.