FEB 4 — Last week I wrote about my reactions and predictions to the just announced Oscar 2012 nominations for the major categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. So if you haven’t read that piece yet, please do. And as promised last week, let’s take a look at a few more categories this week.

Best Foreign Language Film — This is arguably the Academy’s biggest blind spot every single year as general critical consensus (based on year-end lists of respected film publications and critics' circles) very rarely collide with the nominations in this category, let alone the eventual winners of the award, as can be seen in 2009 when highly-garlanded Cannes favourites like “The White Ribbon” and “A Prophet” shockingly lost to “The Secret In Their Eyes”.

But to be completely honest, I didn’t have much of a problem with “The Secret In Their Eyes” winning that year as I still think it’s a lovely little film, even after a second or third viewing, but it was quite a surprise win nonetheless. Of this year’s nominees, I’ve only seen the Iranian breakout hit “A Separation”, which also scored a Best Original Screenplay nomination, meaning that it’s probably miles ahead as favourite for winning the award for this category.

Of the other four nominees, the only one that’s on most film critics’ radar is the Israeli “Footnote”, which competed in Cannes last year and was favourably reviewed, with the remaining three very much mysteriously baffling choices, especially considering the wealth of high-profile foreign language films that were snubbed like Bela Tarr’s “The Turin Horse”, Aki Kaurismaki’s “Le Havre” and Pedro Almodovar’s “The Skin I Live In”.

Best Original Screenplay — There are two surprise nominations in this category, for “Bridesmaids” and “Margin Call.” My guess is that the nominations for these two are enough recognition and they won’t go on to win it. On merits, I think the Iranian film “A Separation” should win this, and though this is a foreign language film, it is not impossible as Pedro Almodovar won it quite recently for “Talk To Her”, and there have been foreign language films that won the Best Screenplay Oscar in the past like “Divorce Italian Style” and “A Man And A Woman”. However, this award also sometimes goes whichever way the wind blows if a film was to sweep everything on the awards nights itself, that means “The Artist” might have a very good chance at winning this.

Best Adapted Screenplay — This is a tough one to predict, but I think it’s going to be a straight fight between the skilful scripting of powerhouse screenwriters Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian in “Moneyball” and the heartfelt, deceptively messy “The Descendants”. As a long-time admirer of Alexander Payne, I’ve noticed that his films tend to get great reviews when they start playing in cinemas (because they really are smart and entertaining movies), but will always be called overrated come Oscar time (probably because his films are “only” comedies), so although his latest film “The Descendants” seems to be a favourite for this category, all this "overrated" stuff might have a bearing on the final results.

Best Animated Film — What a strange list of nominees this year. The omission of Steven Spielberg’s extraordinary “The Adventures of Tintin” is borderline criminal, especially when there’s “Puss In Boots” and “Kung Fu Panda 2” on the list of nominees. “Rango” justifies its nomination as it is a cleverly funny tribute to spaghetti westerns, and I haven’t seen “A Cat In Paris” (oh my God, I just noticed that four of the nominees all feature talking animals!), but I really do hope that they’ll give the win to the beautifully lovely Cuban dance film “Chico & Rita”.

Best Achievement in Cinematography — I’ve only seen two of the films nominated in this category, “The Tree Of Life” and “War Horse”. As beautifully shot as “War Horse” is, and even without seeing the other nominees yet, I think I can safely say that very few films can rival “The Tree Of Life” in terms of gorgeously nimble cinematography. In fact, almost every single shot in the film can be turned into a lovely still photograph that you can frame and show off to your admiring friends. It really is that stunning. You can maybe argue with the film in terms of narrative and even content, but there’s really nothing you can say against it in terms of cinematography. A definite "should win", and it probably will.

Best Achievement in Film Editing — In terms of track record, films by David Fincher have always featured remarkable editing. Just look at “The Social Network” last year. Though I haven’t seen his version of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”, I have a feeling that it will again feature some outstanding film editing (just look at the film’s trailer and you’ll see what I mean), especially since the same team of Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall from “The Social Network” (which won them last year’s Oscar) are again involved. Another possible favourite might be the legendary Thelma Schoonmaker, who’ve been nominated six times before and won three of those.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.