So What Do You Think the 10 Best Pic Nominees Will Be?
Filed under: Awards
This year's Oscar ceremony will mark the first time we're looking at ten (count 'em, TEN!) different Best Picture nominees -- and while I firmly believe this is a bad move, it also stands as a case of terrible timing. We're still feeling the "quality pinch" that arose with the arrival of the most recent WGA strike, which means ... heck, 2009 might have had a tough time doling out FIVE legitimate Best Pic noms, let alone double that amount.But ten it shall be, and now that we're only a few weeks away from the beginning of the Awards Bait movie season, I thought it would be fun to play a simple guessing game. More specifically, which films do you think will be nominated for Best Picture? True, there are still several films that none of us have seen yet, but you don't need a crystal ball to assume that a few December titles will earn a nomination. (Come to think of it, this particular December looks remarkably skimpy on Oscar Bait.)
Based only on the "industry buzz," I'm confident in assuming that Best Picture nominations will go to films like The Road, A Serious Man, Nine, Up in the Air, and The Lovely Bones ... but where do we look after those ones? The Hurt Locker? Precious? Invictus? Moon? (I wish.) Feel free to chime in with your predictions below, and feel free to check out this Film.com piece that asks the same questions.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-02-2009 @ 12:24PM
Kill Shakespeare said...
My picks:
The Hurt Locker
An Education
Up in the Air
Up
The Lovely Bones
Invictus
Preciousictus
A Single Man
Nine
A Serious Man
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 12:25PM
martisco said...
I don't know if it will be nominated, but I have heard that Sony is planning to make a push for District 9. (Why not? Those five extra spots have no doubt got studios salivating, and there are probably a lot of crafty plans being laid to push unlikely films...)
Honestly the most interesting Oscar race stuff is going to be about the competition for those five extra slots!
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 12:52PM
Ryan said...
I really hope A Serious Man is a frontrunner. I think 10 nominees makes it one, but I wouldn't place it as one of the top 5. Even after No Country, the Coens are still outside established Hollywood. That said, I really hope they use 10 nominees (a good idea, in my opinion, if used correctly) to hoist films that wouldn't get Oscar consideration. Up is the big one I'm thinking of right now.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 12:53PM
Anonymous said...
Sadly....
Men Who Stare at Goats
The Road
Brothers
Up in the Air
Invictus
The Lovely Bones
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Hurt Locker
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 2:17PM
Linda said...
I'd love to see Moon get a little Oscar love. Agree that those 5 new spots will be the most interesting to watch.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 1:21PM
Tom said...
Will shutter Island be screened early enough to get an oscar push??
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 1:27PM
Mike said...
It was pushed to next year. Spring, I believe.
11-02-2009 @ 1:27PM
Mike said...
Complete guess (obviously):
Up
Up in the Air
Invictus
The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man
The Lovely Bones
Nine
Precious
District 9
Avatar
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 1:30PM
Kate said...
The five usual overrated films or nominated for politics' sake, and another five nobody has seen because the studios behind them don't trust their audiences enough to put them in wide release.
And then ratings will drop even more and the Academy will wonder why, without a shred of irony.
('Up' and 'Star Trek' would be nice.)
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 2:08PM
Kevin said...
Star Trek as a best picture nominee? Really? It was a fun movie, sure, but please explain why you think it deserves a nomination.
11-02-2009 @ 2:04PM
Bruno said...
Where The Wild Things Are!
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 2:19PM
Ryan said...
Wouldn't that be great?
I'd also like to set up base for the Drag Me to Hell Oscar camp. Who's with me?
11-02-2009 @ 2:35PM
Adam Charles said...
I think Basterds has a decent shot of making the top 10 as it was commercially and critically successful, and it fits more into the Academy wheelhouse than the other summer films. 500 Days of Summer and Away We Go I could also see getting in.
If Fantastic Mr. Fox turns out as good as I've heard I think it could make an interesting Best Animated Film race against UP, PONYO, and CORALINE.
Reply
11-06-2009 @ 7:36PM
Live for Films said...
A Serious Man
Up In the Air
Up
Moon
District 9
Everybodys Fine
The Hurt Locker
Public Enemies
An Education
Inglourious Basterds
Or whatever films have sexy women going ugly, actors going half retard (I'm quoting Tropic Thunder), anything featuring a terminal disease, poverty, disfigurement, abusive spouses/parents or all of them.
It will be lots of films that not many people actually saw apart from critics, directors and studio bigwigs.
Still maybe there will be some genuine surprises in the nominations
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 2:47PM
doa766 said...
inglorious basters
up
ponyo
the lovely bones
the hurt locker (front runner)
nine
the road
avatar (trust me on that one)
coraline (maybe)
public enemies and state of play are not good enough, Shutter Island was moved to next year
Watchmen is too niche to be nominated but it sure deserves it
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 2:51PM
Harless? said...
I would love to see District 9 get a nod, I can't think of 5 better movies I saw this year, so far, and certainly not 10. That being said, I am sure the MPAA and the studios will find 10 high profile movies they want to promote.
I wish, like many of the commentators, that this would be an opportunity to promote smaller films that did not receive the attention they deserved. Films like Goodbye Solo, In the Loop, Precious, the Maid, etc. come to mind. I don't think any of these films was the "best picture" this year, but, let's be honest, the bottom 2 or 3 movies selected will be filler.
Here's hoping the Academy uses what was ultimately a bad idea to a good end.... I am not holding my breath.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 3:38PM
NP said...
Is The Maid even eligible for a best pic nom, being a foreign language film and all? (side note: sadly Chile did not choose The Maid as its bid for foreign language Oscar)
11-02-2009 @ 3:00PM
Evan said...
Precious
Nine (not to be confused with 9)
The Lovely Bones
Up In The Air
A Serious Man
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Avatar (maybe?)
Up
Inglourious Basterds
I wish Moon would get in there somewhere.
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 3:35PM
Davey Morrison said...
The best movies I've seen so far this year:
Where the Wild Things Are
Up
Moon
Drag Me To Hell
I don't see any of those getting BP nominations, except maybe "Up" (it's still hard to say how the Best Animated Feature category has affected animated films' shots at BP nods--who knows how close "Wall-E" came last year).
Reply
11-02-2009 @ 3:33PM
NP said...
Precious
A Serious Man
The Lovely Bones
The Road
Nine
The Hurt Locker
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Up
A Single Man
Reply