This may be the biggest year for the Academy Awards, as some major Hollywood players are going up against some fresh newcomers. Eyeballs everywhere will be glued to ABC on Sunday, February 27th at 8PM E/5PM P when the awards show goes live. But before that, we decided to do some picking of our own with the staff’s predictions for each award.

For a full list of the nominees, check out our previous article on the subject. Now, on to the predictions.

Best Picture

Shannon Hood-The Social Network. It had early and consistent momentum all year, and the Academy appears to be trying to shake up their stodgy image. This would be the perfect film to put their money where their mouth is.

Matt Raub – True Grit. Not only are the Coens a regular in the “I Have an Oscar” club, but this testament to classic western films is definitely one for record books, between its all-star cast and gritty (no pun intended) visual style, this one definitely deserves the golden statue.

Chris Ullrich – True Grit. Even though this was a pretty great year for movies and there are many excellent choices in this category, True Grit stands on its own as my pick. As an example of pure movie storytelling, this Coen Brothers masterpiece excels on every level and delivers a pure entertainment experience you will want to revisit many more times in the future.

Cortney Zamm – The Social Network. There’s a lot of great films in this category, some of them from my favorite directors and starring my favorite people. But the one that combined all of the essential elements of filmmaking into a truly gorgeous, compelling, and memorable film was The Social Network.

Seems that everyone got their fill of turkey and movies last week, as the overall box office was down 54% from last weekend.  Don’t worry, that’s normal.  Despite the box office being fairly slow, Tangled managed to best Harry Potter and finished the weekend in first place with $21.5M.  That brings its total to just over $96M.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 took a comfortable second place finish with $16.7M.  It dropped off about 65% in its third weekend.   The film is still playing on over 4,000 screens.

Burlesque and Unstoppable tied for third place, earning $6.1 each. Love and Other Drugs nabbed the fifth spot, making $5.7M.

The Warrior’s Way opened to little fanfare, and no screenings for critics. The film failed to make any sort of impact at the box office, placing in 9th place for the weekend, barely clearing $3M.

Harry Potter held off a fair haired princess to eke out a win over the weekend.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows made $50.3 M, bringing its ten day total to $220 M.  If you count the entire Thanksgiving weekend (Wednesday through Sunday) the five day total was over $76 M, making it the fourth best Thanksgiving total on record.

It was hardly an easy task. Disney’s new princess caper Tangled performed very well, and made $49.1 M for the weekend;  $69 M over the five days.  This Thanksgiving opening take is second only to Toy Story 2, back in 1999.  When actual grosses come in on Monday, Tangled very well could top the box office.  It also got the first “A+”  from Cinemascore for the entire year. Audiences absolutely loved it.

Megamind is still performing very well.  It only dropped 19% in its fourth weekend for an additional $12.8 M.  It has now made $130 M, finally matching its reported budget. The Cher/Christina Aguilera musical Burlesque played well to audiences, and received a surprising “A-” from Cinemascore exit polls.  It placed fourth with $11.8 M ($17.2  M five-day total).

Denzel Washington’s Unstoppable was just a tad behind, in fifth place. Another new release, Love and Other Drugs, came in sixth with $9.8 M.  It should be noted that the film played on about a thousand fewer screens than the top three films this week.  Faster (starring Dwayne Johnson) came in just behind it.

Rarely did I get to actually go to “The Movies” as a child. The family instead always went to what we called the “$1 show” at  the cinemaplex that showed movies that had been released a few weeks or months prior. However, my parents always made an effort to get me to the latest Disney release, probably because they knew how my eyes would light up as the Disney castle formed from what I could only assume was the swelling of “When You Wish Upon a Star”.

These were always special occasions. The theater felt a little cleaner, the screen seemed slightly brighter and the sound always felt a tiny bit crisper. The chairs were comfier too. I, of course, didn’t fully realize this at eight years old, but I did know that going to the “real” theater was special. As soon as the titles began, I was glued to my seat and I attempted to not blink for the remaining duration of the film.

Being the kind of girl who didn’t understand why I couldn’t wear dresses all the time, the Disney “Princess” movies were my favorites.  I would spend countless hours after school memorizing every line to Beauty and the Beast, I replaced Jasmine with Barbie as my favorite doll, and for a while every toy I had I deemed “Ariel.”