Not since 1943 has the Motion Picture Academy nominated 10 movies for Best Picture. That year the creators of Casablanca walked away with the coveted golden bald statue. But who will come out on top this year?
Commentators coined this year’s Oscars the “battle of the exes”. That's because the fight for the biggest awards boiling down to two people: a divorced couple. James Cameron’s "Avatar" and Kathryn Bigelow’s "The Hurt Locker" both received nine nominations, including the prestigious Best Director and Best Picture.
On ABC News, Bigelow says the faceoff between the divorcees seems like something out of a movie: “We’re very good friends and I couldn’t be happier for him. And I think he’s happy for me as well. It’s just extremely ironic. I mean he makes his first film in 12 years, I make my first in 7 years. You just couldn’t have scripted it. The odds are pretty astronomical.”
Cameron told The Hot Button that he’s seen The Hurt Locker “several times” and has nothing but praise for Bigelow’s ability to cut through clutter: “I’m very proud of Kathryn. I encouraged her to make the film... She knows when something is false and that’s why those people are so real. And it makes that situation such a white knuckler; it’s almost hard to watch in a way, but in a good way."
According to ABC News, both movies’ appeal lies in their ability to transport audiences somewhere new: “It’s a tremendous performance. It takes you to a place you’ve never been before, just like Avatar does. And I think Avatar plays almost like--- it’s a perfect capper movie to a decade in which we love technology."
Richard Roeper & The Movies says despite the 10 nominations for the Best Picture category, "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker" are the only real contenders:
“Now usually I think that Best Director and Best Picture should go hand in hand, but this year you could make the argument that James Cameron should win for Best Director while Kathryn Bigelow’s "The Hurt Locker" is really the Best Picture. Cameron literally had to wait for more than a decade for the technology to catch up with his vision for "Avatar". The movie is a triumph of camera work and cutting edge special effects and amazing visuals, but the story? Not so much. This is a very very tight race and it really could go either way.”
So will Cameron’s blue people win him a bald man? Or will Bigelow's bomb detonator sweep the ceremonies?
Writer: Ann Langworthy
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