Who Will Go Home with Oscar 2011?

Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams -                "The Fighter"
Melissa Leo -                 "The Fighter"
Jackie                            "Animal Kingdom"
Hailee Stanfield              "True Grit"
Helena Bonham-Carter  "The King's Speech"

Likely Winner: With two lots in the draw, so to speak, The Fighter would seem a lock but, as Anna Paquin(The Piano) and Keisha Castle Hughes can attest, the Academy has a soft spot for teens and tweens in dramatic roles. Nonetheless Melissa Leo remains the front-runner with True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld a dark horse.

                        Best Supporting Actress nominee Jackie Weaver in a scene from "Animal Kingdom"

My Pick: The DVD for "Animal Kingdom" should now be available. Get it. You'll not likely see a performance as complete and as engrossing as Jackie Weaver as the sly, manipulative matriarch of a suburban crime outfit in Australia. In a perfect world, there'd be no discussion.

Bets Supporting Actor
Geoffrey Rush      "The King's Speech"
Mark Ruffalo        "The Kids Are All Right"
Christian Bale        "The Fighter"
Jeremy Renner       "The Town"
John Hawkes         "Winter's Bone"


Likely winner: Though there's a lot of buzz surrounding Christina Bale, this is in fact the most open of the "personnel" categories (recognizing individual rather than team accomplishments). Winter's Bone was hardly seen, but both its nominees (Hawkes here for supporting actor, and Jennifer Lawrence for lead actress) gave noteworthy turns

My Pick: For my money, Jeremy Renner was absolutely magnetic as the "hothead" among a group of career bank robbers in Ben Affleck's "The Town" and notwithstanding Colin Firth's command performance, Geoffrey Rush was superlative in The King's Speech".


Next week: Best Actress and Actor

"Knight No More": Bale says next Batman reboot his last

Access Hollywood caught up with Christian during the junket for his latest film, "The Fighter," co-starring Mark Wahlberg, where he said he was ready to bring "The Dark Knight" back to the big screen one more time.

"Absolutely!" Christian said, when asked if he was preparing to film the next Batman movie. "I'm assuming it's going to be the last one, so I'm very excited about it."

As far as the film's title - which Nolan has already announced is "The Dark Knight Rises," Christian said he's yet to officially hear that from the director.

"I haven't spoken with Chris since it got written, so I don't believe anything unless I hear it straight from Chris," the actor noted.

When it comes to who may step in as the caped crusader's next on-screen nemesis or lovely leading lady, Christian said that knowledge is still on a need-to-know basis - and this is one detail he still doesn't know.

"Chris will let me know what I need to know when I need to know it," he said. "This is our fourth movie together. He knows me - I'll know when I need to."

According to a previous report by Deadline, the race for the female lead in the film is down to six candidates -- Keira Knightley, Blake Lively, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Natalie Portman and Anne Hathaway.

Also previously reported by Deadline, "Inception" star Tom Hardy will also join the project, and while details of his role remain under wraps, it's rumored he will step in as the caped crusader's new evil foe.

"The Dark Knight Rises" will hit theaters on July 20, 2012.