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With six critics circles and the NBR and Gotham chiming in, it’s time for another completely premature look at the Oscar race. All my lamenting about the Coen Bros. getting shut out might be hasty. Will we, in fact, go back to 1999, the last time the NBR picked the winner? Right now I’d call No Country a lock for a nod, and one of two front-runners for a win (with There Will Be Blood).

Director breaks down pretty much the same way, with the Coen Bros. taking on relative newcomer Paul Thomas Anderson, but the big win would be a nod for Tim Burton, which is looking more and more like a possibility. I can remember when all three of these guys were the wacky outsiders. Now they’re the men to beat.

I thought NBR’s call on George Clooney in Michael Clayton was a fluke, but it’s starting to look like a dead heat between him and Daniel Day Lewis in Blood for Actor. Meanwhile, Away From Her’s Julie Christie is looking to sew up the Actress category early with La Vie en Rose’s Marion Cotillard as an also-ran.

No one is surprised about the plethora of Best Supporting Actor plaudits for Javier Bardem in No Country, but Casey Affleck is getting some Assassination of Jesse James love, too. And out of nowhere, Amy Ryan is turning into a lock for Best Supporting Actress for Gone, Baby, Gone.

Original Screenplay is a free-for-all, with Juno and The Savages looking like the only movies with any traction. No Country for Old Men is as good a guess as any for Adapted.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly would be a lock at this point for Best Foreign, if France hadn’t chosen to submit Persepolis instead. It might still get love for Best Cinematography, but it’ll have to get past Blood first.

No End in Sight and Sicko look like they might slug it out for Best Doc, but I’d prefer to see the former win.

Ratatouille and Persepolis will do the same for Best Animated, leaving the door open for The Simpsons Movie to win off their split votes. I’m sorry. Did I just wish that out loud?

We’ll see what the Globe nods have to say about all this later today.

Update: That was fast.