With the 79th annual Academy Awards show approaching on February 25, we debate which supporting actor and actress will win a little gold man.

Jamie Malanowski, managing editor: I suppose Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson will win for Dreamgirls. I wish Maggie Gyllenhaal had been nominated for World Trade Center. Her performance as a very ordinary person caught in this great cataclysm was real, unforced and surprising. And as for Best Supporting Actor, put me down for any of the Mayan guys in Apocalypto.

Greg Fagan, contributing writer: Eddie Murphy seems the consensus pick here, and his Dreamgirls work certainly outclasses the field. You have to wonder how perennial Academy favorite Michael Caine didn't get a nod for Children of Men and, if you do, you realize that far too few people actually liked Children of Men, aside from those of us who like the occasional bleak, blood-spattered dystopian action thriller. (It's slim consolation will be to win for Best Cinematography.) Alan Arkin's a treasure—ee the original In-Laws at your earliest convenience—but his turn in Little Miss Sunshine is too short and underdeveloped (the movie is, too, but this isn't the time or space for that argument). Jackie Earl Haley deserves to be recognized for Little Children, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him win. It's a comeback story, and his put-upon sex offender is more sympathetic than say, Hannibal Lecter, which won for Anthony Hopkins. Djimon Hounsou, again, is fine in Blood Diamond; but he was better in In America, which was also a better movie than Blood Diamond. He'll be back again and again. Finally, Mark Wahlberg really is the most compelling screen presence in The Departed, so his inclusion here is no fluke. Just a hunch, but you know people in Hollywood are trying to figure out a way to build a TV series around Wahlberg's Sgt. Dignam. And unless those people are David Chase or Martin Scorsese, he should ignore them.

The smart and most likely safe poll pick for Best Supporting Actress is Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls. It's a classic storyline: You're-going-out-there-American-Idol-reject-and-coming-back-a-star! Or at least the next Marisa Tomei. And that might be generous. It's definitely not the best acting performance here. The two foreign actresses nominated for Babel—Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi—delivered by far the most demanding supporting turns in cinema this year. Really haunting work, on both their parts, with Kikuchi's being the more amazing of the two. With a win in this category for The Aviator, Cate Blanchett's sort of the heavyweight here. But Notes on a Scandal didn't afford her enough of a platform to truly stretch people's impressions of her abilities, which is among the costs of greatness. Abagail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine? Lovely. I'm sure she's a nice kid. But what is this performance doing here? Why not: Shareeka Epps for Half Nelson? Annette Bening for Running With Scissors? Charlotte Gainsbourg for The Science of Sleep? Hell, Mother Nature for An Inconvenient Truth?

Stephen Rebello, contributing writer: In the supporting performances categories, the Cinderella story of Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls—let alone her singing and her instant likeability factor—suggest that she’s a lock for Best Supporting Actress. For that matter, every woman in this category deserves to be there but, still, I could have done with a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Emily Blunt, who flat-out stole every one of her moments in The Devil Wears Prada. Ms. Blunt can probably console herself with the fact that being relatively new and so good, she should get plenty more chances to shine in the future.

In Supporting Actor, the always-original Alan Arkin had a field day with Little Miss Sunshine and it was thrilling seeing the resurgence of Jackie Earl Haley in Little Children. I’d love to see the poetic justice of either of them trouncing Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls. Despite Murphy’s prickly reputation and despite the backsliding that is Norbit, he’ll probably go home weighted down with an Oscar.

Robert DeSalvo, associate editor: I avoid musicals like I try to avoid catching the flu or a Renee Zellweger flick, so I’m not sure what all the fuss is about regarding Dreamgirls. Jennifer Hudson is an American Idol castoff, correct? Now she’s nominated in the same category with one of the finest actresses of our time, Cate Blanchett. Wow. Simon, Paula and Randy should be careful who they kick to the curb … it could be the next Dame Judi Dench or Katharine Hepburn at this rate.