She's a Perfect[ish] 10
By Rob Stevens
11th February 2010.

So as you now, undoubtedly know, there are (for the first time in sixty-something years) 10 nominees for Best Picture. When it was announced, I thought this was a good thing, as I was excited (not to mention a little wary of the probably disappointment) that we could have animations, genre films, documentaries, and even (whisper it) foreign films in the top ten. People pay attention to what the Oscar nominations are – there has been massive interest in Hurt Locker since the Oscar-rumours began, and I recall a librarian once telling me that people asking to borrow Little Miss Sunshine went up about 1,000% after it was Oscar Nominated.

The key thing, really, is the Best Director category. While Best Picture and Best Director didn’t always line up entirely, there was always the suggestion that the films that were in the running to win Best Picture were the ones in the running for Best Director. So looking at the five directors nominated in the best director category, you have Inglorious Basterds, Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air and Precious Based on a blinking book Push by bloody Sapphire in the running for Best Picture. Fine – nothing too unusual there. Up in the Air and Precious are the indie ones you would always expect, The Hurt Locker is the important war one, Avatar is the massive blockbuster, and Inglorious the cult hit that won’t win to prove the Academy is still edgy.

So, with the other five, the Academy could put absolutely anything in, in the knowledge that it is not in a chance with winning, but could celebrate them nonetheless. So how successful has the Academy been? Well, it is - as you would expect - a mixed bag. An animated feature has made it – in the shape of Up. I don’t think it’s as good as last year’s Wall-E, but it is nice to see a quality animation escape from the ghetto that is “Best Animated Feature Film”. So that’s a good choice from the Academy, because aside from it being animated – I don’t want to get into positive discrimination – it is a really good movie.

District 9 was perhaps the surprise choice – a Sci-fi film up for Best Picture! Personally, I thought District 9 was a great film and I’m very, very pleased to see it make the final ten. It’s just a shame Shalto Copely didn’t get some well deserved recognition as well. A Serious Man is a small cult-y kind of film that would not usually get nominated save for the fact that there are ten slots, and the fact that it’s the Coens, who won recently, and have become a favourite oddball outsider choice for the Academy. More importantly, it was a great film. An Education is your British choice. I really liked Scherfig’s film, but I can see that the only reason it has made it here is because it the Oscar-y type film that perhaps wouldn’t (but should have) made the final five. It’s certainly better than Precious Based on a blinking Book Push by bloody Sapphire. The Blind Side, I haven’t seen due to its lack of a UK release so far. It’s made it on the strength of its acting, as Sandra Bullock is surely - at this stage - destined to take home the statue for Best Actress. It’s not too much of a surprise, then, that the actors of the Academy would push one of their own into the big prize.

So it’s a mixed bag. There aren’t any foreign movies, and there aren’t any documentaries. Maybe that was too much to ask. But it is very nice to see genre pictures, animated pictures, small indie pictures and the very good An Education nominated. Certainly, the ten look better than those five that have also received best director nominations would have done.