The 82nd Annual Academy Awards are almost upon us, and we're all anxious to see who walks away with one of those 8.5-pound statuettes. We recently caught up with some of the big names you'll be seeing on Sunday, to get an inside scoop on how Hollywood's finest are preparing for the big day.

Carey Mulligan is getting raves as the schoolgirl who shacks up with the older guy in "An Education," and you'd think that since being nominated for Best Actress, she'd be on her way to becoming a fashionista. Although she's been very well-dressed on the awards-season red carpets so far, however, she told us that her Oscar dress will likely be chosen at the last minute. "I've thought about it. I have dream dresses in my head," she explained, "but I don't know which will make it."

Unlike Kanye West, Mulligan has already learned a valuable lesson and promised she won't be tipping her elbow on Sunday. "I won't drink at awards ceremonies. I did that at the Independent Film Awards in London and I was hammered when I stood up," she remembered. "I didn't think I was gonna win. I was like, 'Ehh whatever.' I got up there, and I was lucky — I kept it very short and got off the stage — but since then, I've been very well-behaved."

As for the "Precious" crew, they insisted that Sunday isn't about behaving themselves or accepting awards politely. For this group, awards season has been one big party celebrating an improbable rise to success. "The film really turned my life around," Best Actress nominee Gabourey Sidibe told us. "It sounds so sad to say that it's given purpose to my life, like I had no purpose before. I did, but I have different purpose now."

"I wanted the film to make a statement, to change people's minds, to have people take a look at Precious," Lee Daniels, up for a Best Director Oscar, explained of the film's purpose. "Because I know that I didn't [pay attention to people like her]. I'd walk the streets of New York and walk right by her; I wouldn't pay attention to her. For me, it's made me look at her. ... I hope that 'Precious' does that for everyone else too."

In the movie, Precious dreams of being a huge star onstage. In real life, however, Sidibe is quite nervous about the big day. "My stomach is hurting over it a little," she admitted of her butterflies. "I'm a little scared."

The Gyllenhaal siblings aren't new to the limelight, but unlike brother Jake, Supporting Actress nominee Maggie hasn't made it into Oscar territory until now — and it couldn't have come as bigger shock to her. "The morning when I was nominated — which was a complete surprise, because for this movie I wasn't nominated for anything else at all — my phone started ringing at 5 o'clock in the morning," she told us, revealing that she got some Oscar advice from her "Brokeback Mountain" brother. "Jake called and said, 'Your phone is going to be like that all day,' which was true. I wanted to go back to sleep, but he said, 'No, stay up, have some coffee; you don't know when this is going to happen again."

And how about Best Actress nominee Sandra Bullock? She certainly isn't a rookie, but in the eyes of Oscar she is. "I feel like, because of this honor and what I've been given these last couple months, I really have an obligation not to step back," the "Blind Side" actress told us, insisting that she plans to use her newfound Oscar clout — win or lose — to get higher-quality movies made. "I feel an obligation to better my work."

As for what she'll be wearing on Sunday? "If I have to wear a trash bag, I'll stud it with rhinestones," the A-lister laughed, saying that she's still debating dress styles. "I'll make it work."

Fellow Hollywood veteran Woody Harrelson is nominated for "The Messenger," but with "Inglourious Basterds" star Christoph Waltz taking home all the awards for supporting actor so far this season, he told us he fully intends to lose this battle of military men. "I suppose there would be jitters if I thought I was going to win," Harrelson said. "But seeing that I'm certain that I won't, [I'm not nervous].

"Somebody's going to have an accent when they accept," he said, referring to Waltz, an Austrian actor. "But it ain't gonna be a Southern accent."