With only one day to go before the 79th annual Academy Awards, there are widespread predictions about who will win the world's top film awards, which are coveted by filmmakers, actors and actresses around the globe.

This time, the best-picture race is as wide open as it has been in years, lacking the usual front-runner or two that everyone just knows will end up winning.

In the best film race, director Martin Scorsese's crime thriller "The Departed" and road comedy "Little Miss Sunshine" face stiff competition from cultural drama "Babel," Japanese World War Two saga "Letters From Iwo Jima" and "The Queen," about the British royal family in a time of crisis.

Unlike the previous two years, this season's best-picture crop has a 100 million U.S. dollars hit going into Oscar night, the cops-and-mobsters epic "The Departed." The other nominees have ranged from about 12 million dollars to 60 million dollars at the box office.

Collectively, the five best-picture nominees had taken in a modest 256 million dollars through last weekend, translating to about 38.5 million moviegoers.

Eddie Murphy's and Jennifer Hudson's roles as soul singers are expected to win them the supporting Oscars, with Helen Mirren as British monarch Elizabeth II in "The Queen" and Forest Whitaker as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland" the favorites for the lead-acting prizes.

Perpetual runner-up Martin Scorsese seems a safe bet to finally win the best-directing Oscar for "The Departed."

There will be drama on the red carpet outside the Kodak, too, as some of the world's most beautiful and best-dressed actresses including Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman arrive dripping in diamonds and wrapped in couture gowns.

The star-studded lineup of Oscar presenters features Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Hanks and Nicole Kidman, while musical performers include Beyonce, Melissa Etheridge, Randy Newman and James Taylor.

Editor: Donald