Lawrence.com

It's no secret that Eric Melin and I love the Academy Awards. Yesterday we finished taping our Oscar preview for 49 News in Topeka and we talk about the Oscars in this week's podcast, namely focusing on the people who were snubbed.

Rather than wait until it gets closer to the award ceremony, I thought I'd share my current picks for the 12 categories I find most interesting. Stay tuned because soon we'll be issuing our own 2011 Academy Awards You Pick 'Em Extravaganza that will allow you to pick your winners and if win some movie passes in the process. We'll be launching that contest later in February, but in the meantime, here's how I picked. Keep in mind, these are the movies I think will win, not necessarily the movies I want to win.

Best Picture

"The King's Speech"

Best Director

David Fincher, "The Social Network"

Best Actor

Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale, "The Fighter"

Best Actress

Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"

Best Supporting Actress

Hailee Steinfeld, "True Grit"

Best Animated Feature

"Toy Story 3"

Best Cinematography

Roger Deakins, "True Grit"

Best Documentary

"Exit Through The Gift Shop"

Film Editing

Angus Wall and Kurt Baxter, "The Social Network"

Adapted Screenplay

Aaron Sorkin, "The Social Network"

Original Screenplay

Christopher Nolan, "Inception"

And there you have it. Eric Melin's picks are quite similar to mine. We differ on Original Screenplay (He favors "The King's Speech.") and Best Picture ("The Social Network"). Stay tuned for our contest starting next week and you could net yourself some movie passes to the Southwind 12.