And The Oscar Goes To......

With those five words, the lives of many will change tonight. Some people will receive their first award after being nominated several times. Others will win their first award along with their being nominated for the first time in their careers.

Yes folks, the Academy Awards will take place shortly. As has been tradition on this blog, The Shadow will give you his predicted winners of what will be the most watched show in the world tonight. Here are The Shadow's predictions in most of the major categories tonight:

• Best Picture -- The Departed
• Best Actor -- Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)
• Best Actress -- Helen Mirren (The Queen)
• Best Supporting Actor -- Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls)
• Best Supporting Actress -- Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
• Best Director -- Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
• Best Foreign Language Film -- Pan's Labyrinth
• Best Adapted Screenplay -- The Departed
• Best Original Screenplay -- Letters from Iwo Jima
• Best Documentary Feature -- An Inconvenient Truth
• Best Animated Feature -- Cars

These are The Shadow's picks. We will follow-up on this at a future date.