oscar oscar, who will win?

The Academy Award nominations have been announced! Is anyone else out there as excited as I am?

I have always been an Oscar tragic. I go through every millimetre of the website checking on nominations in every category, adding up who has the most nods (Brokeback Moutain with 8), which favourites missed out (Cinderella Man and King Kong were pretty much snubbed), and I am even fascinated to find who is up for Best Art Direction and Best Musical Score (can the indomitable John Williams - he of Star Wars, Jaws and Superman fame - win his 6th? He's been nominated an unbelievable 45 times including twice this year alone!).

I'm one of those people who would have to think hard to remember what I ate for dinner last night, but if you want to know who did the Cinematography for Aliens, I'm your girl. By the way Adrian Biddle was the guy on Aliens. He then went onto do The Princess Bride and Thelma and Louise. If I land on pink in Trivial Pursuit, I am unstoppable!

I like other award shows, sure. The Golden Globes are a laugh riot. Stars and their cohorts getting drunker as the night goes on and the speeches - did everyone see Geena Davis's absolute classic speech? I was in stitches for fully five minutes afterward. The Emmys just don't do it for me at all. The Logies, the Aussie equivalent of The Emmys, can have the same nominees for the big awards every year so its not such a stretch to guess who's going to be there.

But none of the above have the weight of the Oscars.

The Oscars are old Hollywood. They are history, and elegance. They are beautiful dresses and handsome movie stars. (Nicole Kidman's unbelievale chartreuse dress at the 69th Oscars inspired the creation of my heroine Romy Bridgeport in my second book Marriage Material) They are romance and nerves. Even after watching two decades of them religiously I still am not over the "who will win" anticipation. So who will win? This year, I have no idea. The nominees are so out there and unexpected and their roles so different. I for one can't wait!

We get the TV telecast several hours behind time hear in Australia, so on March 6th this year, I will have every TV and radio turned off, I will be utterly uncontactable as I hide away so as not to hear the news. Then I will dress up, with a bowl of chips and M&Ms in front of me, and sit on the edge of my seat to listen out for those magic words:

"And the Oscar goes to..."