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February 25th is rapidly approaching and today's announcement of the nominees for the 79th annual Academy Awards paints a clearer picture of what we can expect on that night. As always, there was a mix of surprises and snubs with one shocking omission. We are, of course, speaking of Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion failing to grab a Best Picture nod. Oh, and Dreamgirls didn't, either.

Since Best Picture is the category everyone obsesses about, we will lead the discussion with it. BOP's power rankings had predicted The Departed, The Queen, Babel, and Little Miss Sunshine would all get a nod. We prefer to focus on those and ignore the fact that the film we had ranked sixth, Letters from Iwo Jima, managed a bit of an upset in getting a nod. Just last night, my wife and I had a discussion over dinner about the possibility of it sneaking a spot but the contender we felt was vulnerable was not Dreamgirls. It was Babel. Instead, the Academy picked the Crash imitator over the lackluster musical.

Neither selection was optimal, so the individual decision is a bit irrelevant at the moment. What does matter is that Babel goes from being an assumed forgotten production to being a co-favorite with The Departed. BOP had considered Dreamgirls the second most likely movie to get a Best Picture nod and, in fact, considered it a slam dunk. With one Golden Globes winner out of the picture, the other moves up to the primary competition.

In creating our latest Power Rankings, BOP's staff determined that while The Departed's "best" win is the Broadcast Film Critics Association, it remains the favorite. We cannot in good conscience consider a movie we were uncertain would get a nod as the frontrunner. In point of fact, our group of experts was evenly divided on the subject of The Departed's primary competition. While some said Babel, others staunchly supported Little Miss Sunshine as the dark horse with a chance of providing an alternative to the dreary productions at the front of the Best Picture race. We do not expect The Queen or Letters from Iwo Jima to provide the same level of competition although each more than holds its own in terms of actual quality. This writer feels The Queen is easily the best movie out of the Best Picture contenders.

Best Actor is the other category that is being considered the biggest snub, but BOP had predicted that hype and a Golden Globes win would not be enough for Sacha Baron Cohen today. The five candidates we expected to receive a nomination all did so. The catch is that we had the wrong movie chosen for Leonardo DiCaprio.

In an odd confluence of events, the actor who stars in the year's frontrunner for Best Picture was nominated for a different role. His work on Blood Diamond, a lesser project, was trumpeted in place of The Departed, certainly an unexpected scenario. The fact that an actor may only be chosen once per category created a difficult campaign for DiCaprio's handlers, and the result is that he will need for Academy members to vote for his body of work in 2006 as much as (or arguably more than) his role in Blood Diamond. This likely places him in also-ran territory with Will Smith and Ryan Gosling although the Academy's love for DiCaprio keeps him in play over the next month.

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