2010 Oscar Nominations — Best Picture

I’m not going to run through the full list of nominees for the 2010 Oscars; if you’re interested in that, you can check it out here. But I am very, very intrigued by the list of best picture nominees. If you remember, the Academy decided to double the number of nominees this year, choosing ten candidates for best picture instead of the customary five. Some, including myself, have complained that it was a weak year to do so, but I must admit to being pleasantly surprised by most of the choices. Let’s quickly break it down:

There were three surefire nominees, films that would have been nominated any year: Avatar, Up in the Air, and The Hurt Locker. As expected, all three got a nod. The other two unsurprising nods are probably Push and Inglourious Basterds — in a normal year, both would be bubble candidates, but in a year with a radically expanded field, it’s no big thing.

The rest of the list is where things got incredibly interesting. Much to my delight, the Academy chose to recognize the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man with a nomination. This was what I consider to be the best picture of 2009 — challenging, deeply spiritual without being cloying, a masterpiece of misdirection, and beautifully shot — but I thought its limited box office returns (less than $10 million) would mean it would be ignored. I’m pleasantly surprised to see that I’m wrong.

I’m also glad to see Pixar finally score a best picture nomination for Up. Though I probably like this movie a little less than I liked Wall*E, it’s still a fine picture from a fine studio, and only the second animated film ever to be nominated for best picture (the first was Beauty and the Beast). District 9’s nomination has to be the most surprising — I thought it was a better film than Avatar, but I never thought the Academy would give it a nomination since Dances with Furry Blue Cats had already sewn up a nod. An Education was a surprisingly entertaining film, with several brilliant performances and some great period design. The Blind Side is the only choice I disagree with, and even that’s a half-hearted disagreement: It was a fine little picture, but nothing more. For once, a movie is riding the coattails of a star (in this case Sandra Bullock, who is at this point the favorite to take home best actress) to a nomination, instead of vice versa.

In the end, I don’t think this list of nominees changes the basic calculus: It’s a three picture race, between Avatar (the highest grossing film of all time and a technological game-changer), The Hurt Locker (the best film yet made about the Iraq war and one directed by only the fourth woman to be nominated for best director in the history of the Academy Awards), and Up In the Air (the movie that most clearly resonates with our nation in its time of economic troubles). But it’s certainly nice to see some extra love thrown at a handful of great films that would have been otherwise ignored.