I’m writing this post about the Oscars while I watch the Grammys. Right now, my award-show haze is being pierced by Pink’s bad-assitude (She’s spinning in the air… and singing!),  Jamie Foxx’s self-satisfied assholery, and Taylor Swift’s tizz-errible singing.

But let me get back to the matter at… God, Taylor Swift! You are so out of tune!

Okay, okay… here’s my wish list of Oscar nominees in all four acting categories.

Previously: Best Pictures, Worst Pictures and Performances, A Special Award for Invictus

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
What more to say that hasn’t been said by a hundred other writers? Bridges is amazing.

George Clooney, Up in the Air
At first, this seems like the latest in a long line of Clooney’s smirky-cool performances, but then you get to the scenes where his character’s businessman heart starts to openupjustalittle… and you see how much passion and pain he’s been hiding. Clooney plays that substance without overplaying.

Mark Duplass, Humpday
Humpday is the anti-Hangover, examining the same realm of anxiety that gets created by straight male affection but responding to it with humanity, generosity, and wit instead of cruelty, boneheadedness, and infantilism. At the center of all this, Duplass, as the married man who wonders if having sex with his best friend will guarantee that he doesn’t become a suburban cliche, is laugh-out-loud funny. With his um-uh-dude speech pattern and his endearingly terrible poker face, he creates a character I both believe in and want to hang out with.

Colin Firth, A Single Man
Despite my issues with the film, I remain stirred by Firth’s performance. It’s my favorite performance in this category because Firth moves oceans of grief just beneath the surface of his face. You can sense the motion without ever quite seeing it.

Ben Foster, The Messenger
Remember how gross Foster looked as Claire’s art school boyfriend in Six Feet Under? Turns out, he’s really hot. But unearthed sexiness is not enough reason to toss the man an Oscar nomination. A Golden Globe nomination, sure, but not an Oscar. No, the O-nom comes for the powerful arc of his performance, from repression to rage to grief.

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Best Actress

Shohreh Aghdashloo, The Stoning of Soraya M.
You may remember that a few months ago, I interviewed my friend Mozhan Marno, who plays the title role in this film about a young woman who is stoned to death in Iran after falsely being accused of adultery by her husband. Aghdashloo plays her mother, who first tries to save her daughter and then fights to get her story told. She rips it up with her trademark, husky-voiced intensity. (On a side note: What is up with her character on FlashForward? How does she know so much about what’s going to happen to Joseph Feinnes and John Cho?)

Alycia Delmore, Humpday

She’s the wife whose husband wants to boink his best friend, and I love the scene where she finds out about it. She goes from laughing to screaming to just about breaking something, and a few scenes later, she reveals a secret of her own in a way that says “I understand you” instead of “I’m getting you back.”

Carey Mulligan, An Education
Intervening months seem to have cooled the buzz on this performance, but they shouldn’t have. Mulligan is radiant in one of the breakthrough performances of the year.

Gabourey Sidibe, Precious: Based on the Novel “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway
This movie wouldn’t be nearly as memorable without a lead performance of this caliber. Sidibe lets us see the Precious who might have been, vivacious and imaginative and happy, if she hadn’t been born into her terrible life, and that ray of undimmed light makes the movie much more powerful.

Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
As Roommate Joe said in his own dream Oscar ballot, Streep’s consistent excellence makes it easy to take her for granted. For my money, though, her work in this movie is more than just “another great Streep performance.” Even for her, the lightweight joy, the occasional bursts of regret, and the vivid intellect on display are incredible. She’s my winner in this category.

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Best Supporting Actress

Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Farmiga has been getting “next big thing” chatter for several years, and I never understood why until she got sexy and tough in this movie. She’s so good in her scenes with George Clooney that she makes his work better.

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Well, look at that… an effortless and endearing comedic performance from an actor I’d never registered before. Welcome to my consciousness, Anna! Here’s an O-nom!

Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Moore isn’t good in every movie, but when she gets to play brittle characters who are just barely holding it together, she’s great. Here, as the best friend of Firth’s grieving gay man, she mixes tremulousness with a dash of desperate love and a dollop of dirty jokes.

Samantha Morton, The Messenger
Just edging out Melanie Laurent from Inglourious Basterds, Morton gets into my top five for that scene in the shopping mall where she goes apeshit on those military recruiters. A recently widowed war bride, she’s been holding it together for the sake of her son, but when she sees young kids about to give their lives to an army that destroyed her family, she goes wild.

Mo’nique, Precious: Based on the Novel “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf
This is the best female performance of the year… and possibly the best of the year, bar none.

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Best Supporting Actor

Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
As the soldier who wants to get the hell off the battlefield—unlike his colleague, who doesn’t want to be anywhere else—Mackie gives me an anchor in this terse, exciting, and sometimes discombobulating movie.

Alfred Molina, An Education
Molina earns his nod for that scene outside his daughter’s bedroom door. He’s so sweet and confused and hurt as he tries to figure out how to keep his family together… even though he barely understands why it’s falling it apart.

Zachary Quinto, Star Trek
I think I’m the only person in the blogosphere who is calling for this nomination, but I say Z-Quin deserves it. He makes Spock human without skimping on his logical Vulcan side. The performance sticks with me all these months later.

Stanley Tucci, Julie and Julia
Tucci is probably going to get nominated for The Lovely Bones, which I don’t want to see, but I wish he’d get tapped for his work as Julia Child’s husband. With very few words, but he speaks loudly about his continuing love and amazement for his wife.

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds: Based on the Novel “Push” By Sapphire
When you’re watching this movie, you figure out in about five seconds that Waltz is giving an unforgettable performance. He totally deserves the Oscar he’s going to win next month.