The winners of the 79th Academy Awards and how I did well in my predictions ("will win" predictions I got correct are in boldface, "should win" are in italic, "could win" are in asterisk):

BEST PICTURE: The Departed
BEST ACTOR: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
BEST ACTRESS: Helen Mirren, The Queen
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine *
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
BEST DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese, The Departed (FINALLY!)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Little Miss Sunshine
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Departed
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Happy Feet *
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: An Inconvenient Truth
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: The Lives of Others, Germany *
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Pan's Labyrinth
BEST EDITING: The Departed
BEST ART DIRECTION: Pan's Labyrinth
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Marie Antoinette
BEST MAKEUP: Pan's Labyrinth
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Gustavo Santaolalla, Babel
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: "I Need to Wake Up", An Inconvenient Truth
BEST SOUND MIXING: Dreamgirls
BEST SOUND EDITING: Letters from Iwo Jima
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Lots of surprises in the minor categories, I mean Babel's score over Pan's Labyrinth? Children of Men losing in Cinematography? The Lives of Others winning over Pan's Labyrinth in Best Foreign Language Film?

Though I was finally glad to see Scorsese finally win an Oscar (presented to him by Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg no less) coupled by The Departed winning the wide-open Best Picture race. This calls for a celebration, courtesy of The Dropkick Murphys: