With the 79th annual Academy Awards show approaching on February 25, we debate which movie will win a little gold man and if it matters.

Jamie Malanowski, managing editor: All I can say is that I hope Babel doesn’t win. Though superbly directed—the scenes in Tokyo were especially vivid—I thought the film pretentious and vapid. I’d also be disappointed if Little Miss Sunshine won. It’s a splendid little movie and a delight to watch, but jeez, if it were to win Best Picture, it would send a message in letters as big as the HOLLYWOOD sign that the studios were brain dead. Letters From Iwo Jima was a good movie, and heartfelt, and I enjoyed the performance of Ken Watanabe, who reminded me of Gregory Peck, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before. I liked The Departed quite a lot; I think people minimize it as minor Scorsese, but with the excellent writing and the wonderful performances that fill the film (Alec Baldwin! Ray Winstone!), the film will surely wear very well in the decades to come. (You can imagine Babel or Little Miss Sunshine winning, and people in 2027 saying "Imagine—they passed over The Departed for this trifle?") Oddly, I think I’d vote for The Queen. It takes a certain knack to dramatize real life. You have to have the right eye for leaving stuff out and presenting what’s left just right. The filmmakers did a great job is showing the monarchy as a silly institution, yet also one of great strength and dignity, and to see Queen Elizabeth coping with change made for a terrific drama.”

Greg Fagan, contributing writer: Best Picture is more of a toss-up this year than most, but I'm starting to see Letters From Iwo Jima emerging through the smoke, grizzled Hollywood veteran Clint Eastwood and his co-producer Steven Spielberg leading a small strike force in raising a great 60-foot Oscar statue on stage to close the show. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, the two frontrunners: Babel, because of its interconnected storylines, will remind all of last year's Crash voters that Paul Haggis's storylines felt less organic and forced, while simultaneously reminding all of last year's Brokeback Mountain voters that they hate Crash—an insurmountable double whammy; The Departed will lose (unjustly), because Martin Scorsese will win for director (justly), maxing out his karmic credit card. Little Miss Sunshine? Lovely little film, but not a Best Picture. The Queen doesn't really seem to be in the running, either. As good as it is, I still foresee viewers thinking "Isn't it HBO?" and knocking it down a notch.

Stephen Rebello, contributing writer: Right from the jump, I have to confess that all the yearly frenzy about who and what will win the Oscar tends to make me cranky. OK, crankier. How can I get all worked up about which movie will take Best Picture this year when real classics like the original King Kong, His Girl Friday, Touch of Evil, Psycho, Mean Streets, The Searchers, Frankenstein, Repulsion or High Sierra weren’t even nominated back in the day? Little Miss Sunshine? I had a ball. Ditto The Departed. But neither holds a candle to the stunning, powerful, and brilliantly made Children of Men, which isn’t even nominated. If pressed, I’d say Babel will take the prize. If the voting turns out to be a dead heat between it and The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine will have its biggest triumph yet as the little movie that could. In my own personal awards ceremony, though, Children of Men and its masterful director Alfonso Cuaron take it all.

Robert DeSalvo, associate editor: Do the Academy Awards ever reward the movies that you watch over and over again for years to come; the ones that really move you and stand the test of time? Rarely, so I find it hard to give a damn. Instead of praising films that succeed spectacularly in their respective genre (this year, think V for Vendetta or Thank You for Smoking), we are treated to the same parade of sepia-hued tragic dramas, historical re-enactments, and war flicks. Throw a gal in a corset and give her an accent or have an actor play ugly or handicapped and you’ll have to duck from all the Oscar statues being thrown your way. It’s all so predictable and boring, but one movie in this year’s crop is not: The Departed. It is Martin Scorsese at his finest with a killer cast and compelling story. It’s easily the best picture in the group, which, of course, means it won’t win.