Saddle up; it's Oscar time. Time to pore over, study, pontificate and perhaps check out a movie or two. This year's Oscar contest is now officially under way. As in years past, the challenge is to beat Steven Uhles, The Augusta Chronicle's arts and entertainment writer, by picking more winners from the six marquee categories -- best picture, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, and director -- than he does. Folks who pull off that feat (Mr. Uhles missed only one last year) will have their names printed in the paper, and one winner, drawn at random from those with the most correct winners, will receive an entertainment prize package and an opportunity to pick five movies for Mr. Uhles to write about in his weekly Reel Releases column.

The deadline for entries is 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22. Mr. Uhles will announce his picks Sunday, Feb. 24. There also will be a Web program with Mr. Uhles and Wounded Warrior Care Project's executive director and former television station WRDW anchorwoman Laurie Ott (who routinely schools Mr. Uhles in the contest), discussing this year's nominees and their picks.

Vote online using the form below. Only one entry per person; multiple entries will be discarded and disqualified.

BEST PICTURE

o Atonement

o Juno

o Michael Clayton

o No Country for Old Men

o There Will Be Blood

ACTOR

o George Clooney, Michael Clayton

o Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

o Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

o Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah

o Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises

ACTRESS

o Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age

o Julie Christie, Away From Her

o Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

o Laura Linney, The Savages

o Ellen Page, Juno

SUPPORTING ACTOR

o Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

o Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

o Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild

o Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War

o Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

o Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There

o Ruby Dee, American Gangster

o Saoirse Ronan, Atonement

o Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone

o Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

DIRECTOR

o Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

o Jason Reitman, Juno

o Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton

o Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

o Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood