Oscar night I am a new year resolution kind of guy. I never used to be, thought that kind of thing was for girls. But the last few years I have sat down in the early days of January and scribbled a few things down. Some have been hard to attain, some have been conveniently forgotten but some I have been slightly more successful with. A couple of years ago I wrote down 'cinema'.

I was frankly bored of missing out on conversations amongst friends about movies, I read, well read (past tense*) a lot of books, but never got to see many films for reasons I'm not sure off. So the last few years I have been a regular at the big screen and now I am a Netflix member too so I can also catch up on the stuff I missed.

Last year I was particularly proud of myself (I'm easily pleased) when the Oscar nominee's came out and I had seen nearly all of the films nominated. This year has been the same. Last Sunday I saw Syriana, a film about America's involvement in the oil industry. Was good and George Clooney is up for the 'Best Actor in a Supporting Role.'

I'm not naïve enough to know that the best films or actors actually win The Oscars, but I"m looking forward to sitting down this evening to watch the 78th Academy Awards in the knowledge that I know what they are talking about and can have my own opinions. Based on the nominees, here are my thoughts on how the little gold statues will be handed out tonight:

Update Sunday 10.25pm. Winners in red below.
Best Film: Crash Crash
Best Actor: Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote)
Best Actress: Charlize Theron (North Country) Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: George Clooney (Syriana) George Clooney
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardner)
Best Directing: Steven Spielberg (Munich) Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)

* I want to think about why I don't read nowhere near as many books as I used too. Lots of reasons probably, no commute anymore, the dreaded internet, I buy too many magazines. It's a mystery though and it appears on my 2006 new years resolutions.   ¶ 02:15