Mark Johnson Presents Award Contenders

Best Picture

The Hurt Locker	Avatar	Inglourious Basterds


A suspenseful portrait of the elite members of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad, soldiers who volunteer to challenge the odds and save lives in one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. Three EOD members battle insurgents and each other as they seek out and disarm deadly bombs in a thrilling race against time.	Avatar takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery, as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization. The film was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, Avatar delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.
Inglourious Basterds begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus(Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as “The Basterds,” Raine’s squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich.	From Jason Reitman, the Oscar® nominated director of "Juno," comes a comedy called "Up in the Air" starring Oscar® winner George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles and just after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams	Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo'Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write.

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The Blind Side	Up	An Education	District 9	A Serious Man


An African American teenager in Memphis, whose father was murdered and whose mother was a crack addict, is shuffled through the public school system, despite his low grade point average and absenteeism. But his tremendous size and quickness attracts the interest of a wealthy white couple who take him in and groom him both athletically and academically to become one of the top high school football prospects in the country.	By tying thousands of balloon to his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn't alone on his journey, since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.	An Education is the story of a teenage girl's coming-of-age set in 1961 London, a city caught between the drab, post-war 1950s and the glamorous, more liberated decade to come. Jenny (Carey Mulligan) stands on the brink of becoming a woman: a brilliantly witty and attractive 16-year-old whose suburban life is about to be blown apart by the utterly unsuitable 30-something David (Peter Sarsgaard). Urbane and witty, David manages to charm her conservative parents Jack (Alfred Molina) and Marjorie (Cara Seymour). David introduces Jenny to a glittering new world of classical concerts and late-night suppers with his attractive friend and business partner, Danny (Dominic Cooper) and Danny's girlfriend, the beautiful but vacuous Helen (Rosamund Pike). Just as Jenny's family's long-held dream of getting their brilliant daughter into Oxford seems within reach, Jenny is tempted by another kind of life.	District 9 is based on Alive in Joburg, a short film directed by Neill Blomkamp, Sharlto Copley, Simon Hansen and Shanon Worley. Copley also portrayed one of the interviewed policemen. The short film is about aliens landing in South Africa and becoming confined to a specific area and forced to work	A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man's search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous colleagues, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry's chances for tenure at the university. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person – a mensch – a serious man?

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Analysis: The hopes for a Best Picture win can be narrowed down to four films: Inglourious Basterds, Avatar, Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker. The other six can be happy that they were nominated. There are great arguments to be made for each of these four films.

Inglourious Basterds is a wildly original and brilliant revenge film full of memorable performances and characters and witty Tarantino dialogue. I think the new preferential voting system that the Academy is using to vote for Best Picture helps this film the most. It seems to be a film everyone enjoyed, especially the Actors branch (which coincidentally is the largest voting branch of the Academy). The Actors named Inglourious Basterds Best Ensemble at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. And, of course, it has producer Harvey Weinstein, who is once again pushing his film harder than anyone for the win. Many feel Weinstein's politics caused the major upset for Best Picture in 1998, when Shakespeare in Love defeated Saving Private Ryan.

Avatar is the definition of a groundbreaking film and the MAJOR box office champion of the year. In fact, it is now the biggest box office champion of all time, breaking Titanic's record. Many are saying it will change the way films are made, referring to it as this generations Star Wars. However, it may have reached its peak when it won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Avatar hasn't won anything big since then.

Up in the Air has the great George Clooney and a fantastic supporting cast, but more importantly it has timing. With unemployment devastating the country, this film about a man whose job it is to fire people may strike a chord in the voters. However, of the four, I think Up in the Air is the least likely to win by far. Without a SAG ensemble nomination and without an Oscar nomination for Best Editing, its odds of winning are very, very slim.

And of course The Hurt Locker, who is sweeping through the awards season, being the first to win the New York Film Critics, The LA Film Critics and The National Society of Film Critics top prize since L.A. Confidential did it back in 1997 (btw, L.A. Confidential lost to another James Cameron film named Titanic come Oscar time). The Hurt Locker has also won the Critics Choice Award, Producers Guild Award and Directors Guild Award. It also received a SAG Ensemble nomination, where Avatar and Up in the Air did not (Inglourious Basterds won the SAG Ensemble). The Hurt Locker also has history on its side. No movie has won the Directors Guild Award, Writers Guild Award AND the American Cinema Editors Award in the same year and NOT won Oscars Best Picture. In the 48 years that it was possible, seven out of the seven films to have won all three of those awards have gone on to win Oscars big prize. As mentioned in my Director analysis, Bigelow could become the first female director to win the director Oscar and may see her film winning the biggest prize on top of it. The Hurt Locker and Avatar lead all films with 9 nominations each, another good sign as to who is the front runner. The recent email scandal may be the only thing standing in its way of victory. It seems one of the Producers of The Hurt Locker was caught violating one of the rules of AMPAS by personally emailing voters trying to obtain their votes. We will have to see if this late hour scandal derails one of the biggest precursor sweep champions ever.

Will Win - The Hurt Locker

Should Win - Inglourious Basterds

Could Win - Avatar

***Summaries:Fandango.com/TrailerAddict.com

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