Adding 5 Films to the Best Picture Race

Since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has announced that it will expand the race for Best Picture from 5 to 10 candidates (an obvious response to the shunning of the Dark Knight and Wall-E,) Film Blogs have been ablaze with buzz of recent hits that could be Best Picture contenders. Everything from the Hangover to Star Trek has been mentioned as a possible contender, yet honestly that is still a load of crap. Okay, Up will definitely be nominated as a Wall-E consolation prize, some buzz-heavy indie films like An Education will be considered, and if James Cameron's Avatar even comes close to living up to its hype, it will definitely be one of the ten as the Dark Knight consolation prize. Also, one has to remember that Cameron's last narrative film was this little confection called Titanic which was (other than the Lord of the Rings films) the last time a mega-hit was the Oscar darling. This could mean that potentially successful Summer Movies with big-name casts and high artistic standards like Michael Mann's 30's Gangster/FBI epic Public Enemies, with Johnny Depp andChristian Bale, and Quentin Tarantino's WWII Epic done Tarantino style Inglorious Basterds, (yes that is how QT spells it, don't ask me why because I don't know and I don't think anybody else does,) starring Brad Pitt have a chance. But don't bet on it because there is obviously a catch to this decision: there will be even more of the turgid period, Harvey Weinstein, dramas that Oscar loves and the public (even critics) don't. This does not mean that Oscar is going to be selecting the ten best films of the year, it just means they're going to "widen their horizons," albeit how slightly. Oh, the other thing is Avatar and Up don't have chance in hell to win. Already, it is abundantly clear that the winner will be either Clint Eastwood's Nelson Mandela/World Cup Soccer themed Invictus starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela (Eastwood+Freeman+Biopic+Mandela [i.e. inspirational]=Oscar) and Matt Damon as some South African soccer star, Peter Jackson's super-depressing child-murder themed The Lovely Bones, or Rob Marshall's Broadway Musical based on Fellini's 8 1/2 adaptation Nine. I only include Nine with the above because of a cast that includes Oscar winners galore (Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren,) and the fact that they sure liked Marshall's last Broadway based offering Chicago. Still the idea of Day-Lewis carrying a film through song and dance routines seems a trifle far-fetched. Of the three, I would pick Eastwood and Invictus because of the far more uplifting material and the cast, but I suspect the Academy would feel very awkward about awarding an acting legend with three directing Oscars and none for acting.

*Sorry, a lot of the films listed above do not have pictures or trailers yet on the web. As soon as I can get pics and trailers, you can be sure that there will be a gallery.