“Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” were both nominated for nine Oscars this year and “Inglourious Basterds” for eight. For the first time, the Best Picture Award has 10 different nominees, making it almost 10 times harder to decide.

We have seen some dynamite pictures in 2009 – one of the best years ever for film in my opinion. Dazzling performances and amazing directing has really made it difficult to predict the winners, but these are my picks.

In my opinion, “Inglourious Basterds” was the best film of 2009 and deserves to win each award it is nominated for. I realize that’s unrealistic, but “Inglourious Basterds” is a shoe-in for Best Supporting Actor with Christopher Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa.

It also should win Best Editing. Sally Menke deserves the award for all her wonderful editing of Tarantino’s work. Since she’s only been nominated once for “Pulp Fiction,” this award already has her name on it. And because Tarantino has been working on the movie for more than a decade, it looks like he’s also going to win Best Original Screenplay, especially since he’s taken the World War II genre for a spin.

God bless Kathryn Bigelow – she has done an amazing job with “The Hurt Locker,” despite all the criticism it’s garnered. She deserves to win Best Director for this film. It just goes to show that sometimes the best films aren’t made with budgets of $100 million. I’m talking to you, James Cameron.

That’s not to say I don’t give James Cameroon’s “Avatar” credit. The visuals are mind-boggling and should easily win Best Visual Effects. I also anticipate that Cameron will win for Best Score. James Horner’s work on “Avatar” is beautifully crafted and worthy of the Oscar.

Another film to keep an eye on is “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.” After winning Sundance, this screenplay ought to win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The novel was already fantastic and it’s extremely difficult to transfer that to screen, but Fletcher did it – and did it well.

Monique’s work in “Precious” also makes her a contender for Best Supporting Actress. Monique won Sundance over; she ought to win over the Oscar jury, too. This Indie film has gone on to create quite some noise.