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.

Though it was rumored months ago, Marvel Studios has officially announced that actor Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in The Matrix, among others) has been cast as the main antagonist, the Red Skull, in Joe Johnston’s upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger.

The news doesn’t come as much of a shock, even without the rumors. Weaving has made himself known as one of the top character actors to play a marketable villain since his work in The Matrix, and has even reprrised his badassery in Michael Bay’s Transformers films as Megatron. Also, director Johnston just finished and released The Wolfman for Universal, which cast Weaving as one of the main characters.

In the film, the character is said to be an updated version of the villain we know from the comics. In this incarnation, Johann Schmidt is drafted into the Third Reich and given the codename “The Red Skull.” In the comics, Schmidt is given the name due to an accident that caused his head to be…a red skull. Whether or not they will actually put Weaving in tons of makeup has yet to be announced.

The film also stars Sebastian Stan (Hot Tub Time Machine) as Bucky Barnes, Hayley Atwell (The Prisoner) as Peggy Carter, and Chris Evans as the titular Captain America. Captain America: The First Avenger is currently set to hit theaters on July 22, 2011.

In the latest The First Avenger: Captain America news, HeatVision is reporting that Hugo Weaving (Matrix, Lord of the Rings) is Marvel Studio’s first choice to star as the film’s villain, Red Skull. In the comic books, Red Skull is Captain America’s archenemy, engaging in espionage and sabotage as Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man.

If Weaving is tapped, it would reunite the star with director Joe Johnston, whom he worked with in this year’s The Wolfman. In other casting news, the list of Captain America contenders appears to have thinned.

We recently reported that five actors were in the running. However, HeatVision and Deadline New York have both reported that John Krasinski is no longer in the race for the coveted role. According to the sites, Marvel is now considering Wilson Bethel (Generation Kill), Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) and Garrett Hudlund (Tron Legacy), who have all either read, tested, or received test offers.

The First Avenger: Captain America is slated for a July 11, 2011 release.

Director Martin Scorsese and frequent collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio proved to be a lethal combination at the box office this weekend, as Shutter Island sold the most tickets. The psychological thriller scared up a healthy $40 Million during its first weekend in release, buoyed by mostly favorable reviews. The film piqued the interest of horror fans, DiCaprio fans, and  Scorsese loyalists.

Despite tumbling a massive 69% from its opening weekend, Valentine’s Day still managed to snag an additional $17 Million. Avatar is still comfortably hanging out in the top five, and added $16m to its staggering totals. Ten weeks, people. Unbelievable.

Number four Percy Jackson dropped about 50% for $15 Million. Universal’s worst fears about The Wolfman have come true. The film dropped 68% from last weekend, and made a measly $9.8 Million.  That $150 Million budget looks impossible to make back at this time.

You can’t blame it strictly on bad word of mouth-I have yet to hear of one single person who actually enjoyed Valentine’s Day, yet people still flocked to see the film. Quite frankly, I am scratching my head over this turn of events. There’s a reason I don’t write box office predictions.

Outside of the top five, Dear John is shaping up to be a nice hit for Sony. After 3 weeks in release, the film has more than doubled its budget of $25 Million, and has made a solid $65.9 Million.

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt work alone and without a net covering all kinds of new topics including Toy Fair 2010, the box office success of Valentine’s Day and The Wolfman and new adaptation announcements such as Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein and Dracula (aka Vlad the Impaler). They also discuss the oddness and length of recent movie titles, the Avatar prequel novel, the potential endings for ABC’s Lost and who rules Bartertown.

They both also made some good picks again this week incuding Matt’s pick of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant and Chris’ pick of the Martin Scorsese gangster classic Goodfellas, featuring Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

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