Best Picture Nominees 2011
Last year was fun:
Two films representing vastly different kinds of moviemaking, directed by people who had once been married to each other. You'll recall that Kathryn Bigelow's pinchpenny war drama The Hurt Locker beat out James Cameron's megahit war fantasy Avatar for the 2010 Best Picture Oscar. The dude got all the loot; the lady took the gold.
In this year's Oscar race, the top combatants are figures from two acclaimed biopics: the tongue-tied Bertie, a.k.a. King George VI, of The King's Speech and that uncommon commoner Mark Zuckerberg of The Social Network. One film is a stately weepie, the other a Mensa talkathon. Ten films are nominated for Best Picture, including the megahits Toy Story 3 and Inception and the actors' showcases The Fighter, Winter's Bone and Black Swan. But as in 2010, there will be no Best Picture cachet for the other eight except that they can advertise themselves as "Nominated for Best Picture!" Barring an upset, the winner will be Bertie or the billionaire.