Awards Countdown: Best Picture

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Star Trek
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
Crazy Heart
Invictus
Up In The Air
The Hurt Locker
An Education
Inglourious Basterds
Up
A Single Man
The Last Station
Brothers
A Serious Man
Nine
It’s Complicated
The Lovely Bones
The Road
Bright Star
Julie & Julia

Best picture chances

Star Wars picked up a best-picture nomination. So did each of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. If they can do it, there is no reason why Cameron’s opus Avatar will not. Breaking new cinematic ground in the way technology impacts storytelling, the film will win over many Academy voters who vote for spectacle. This is the Academy, after all, which gave best-picture Oscars to The Greatest Show On Earth, Around The World In 80 Days, Ben-Hur, Lawrence Of Arabia, Out Of Africa, Dances With Wolves and Titanic. Avatar has been nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture (drama).

What Screen said

“An epic film born entirely of Cameron’s imagination, Avatar uses tailor-made technology to create the most astonishing visual effects yet seen on screen and blends them seamlessly into a mythical sci-fi story about an ancient civilisation fighting the encroaching human menace.”

Mike Goodridge

With a field of 10 best-picture Oscar nominations, the chances for a crowd-pleasing smash hit such as Star Trek become much greater. The fact JJ Abrams’ reinvention of a dying franchise was also one of the best-reviewed movies of the year and one of its most dramatically satisfying can only help.

What Screen said

“JJ Abrams injects a gigantic dose of energy into this long-running franchise and brings it roaring back to life with his immensely satisfying Star Trek prequel. Going boldly where many have been before, the talented film and TV-maker hardly puts a foot wrong in his quest for renewal, creating a new mythology complete with pin-up stars, invigorating humour and juicy on-board melodrama… The beauty of this reinvention is that lovers of the Star Trek franchise from 1966 onwards will appreciate Abrams’ work here as well.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

It’s almost a done deal that Daniels’ electrifying film will reach the final 10 best-picture nominees, if only because it is the one film this year which provokes an emotional reaction in almost everyone who sees it. Skillfully marketed throughout the year with the help of executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, Precious has gradually transformed from an underdog in to one of the favourites. The film is nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture (drama).

What Screen said

“People like Precious rarely get their own movie and, ironically, that will help break its commercial prospects beyond the ghetto for ‘urban’ films. Like Sapphire’s 1996 book, it could become a major talking point among kids and adults, and even make people think twice before passing judgment on a Precious passing them in the street.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

Crazy Heart’s best award chances are in the acting categories, especially for lead Jeff Bridges, whose transformative turn as down-and-out country star Bad Blake places him as a front runner for best actor. But the Academy has always treasured its US character dramas, and Duvall’s own Tender Mercies was a best picture nominee back in 1983.

What Screen said

“While Crazy Heart has the structure and some of the conventions of a TV movie, it is elevated to theatrical status by the direction of Cooper and a performance by Jeff Bridges which could be his best.

“Crazy Heart is a story of redemption, which has been told a thousand times before, but is infused with energy here by Cooper’s dialogue and his work with the actors. Bridges is sensational as Bad Blake, not just because he throws his soul into singing the original songs, but because he embodies the complexities of the man so completely — both charming and obnoxious, talented but prone to self-destruction, loving but ruined by addiction.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

Eastwood, of course, is no stranger to the Oscars, although many were surprised to see his box-office hit Gran Torino snubbed last year. Still, Invictus bears the hallmarks of a winner with awards groups in all the major categories, not least because it touches on such a historic issue — the end of apartheid in South Africa — in the context of an exciting and entertaining sports film.

What Screen said

“An old-fashioned crowd-pleaser which is both a rousing sports movie and a testament to the nobility of Nelson Mandela, Invictus is another strong entry in Clint Eastwood’s fast-growing body of work… Invictus benefits from the Eastwood stamp, the clout of Warner Bros as a studio distributor and two big stars — Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon… If the film might appear self-important or didactic going in, that would be to underestimate Eastwood’s skill at using humour and humanity to take any hot air out of his own sails.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

Jason Reitman’s Juno scored picture and director Oscar nominations in 2007, and chances are that his much praised Up In The Air will do the same. It is almost the perfect awards package: a clever, melancholy comic drama addressing contemporary issues of unemployment, corporate ruthlessness and no-strings relationships, while also starring George Clooney in his best performance to date. Nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture (drama).

What Screen said

“A smart and poignant romantic comedy, Up In The Air has a lot on its mind, and although the film does not execute perfectly all of its ambitions, it’s one of those rare mainstream Hollywood pictures that addresses contemporary issues gracefully. Anchored by a strong performance from Clooney, Reitman’s most mature film balances laughs and pathos with its story of downsized workers and love’s redemptive power… Up In The Air represents a merging of the best qualities of Reitman’s previous two films, combining the skewed look at the modern workplace of Thank You For Smoking and the sentimental romance of Juno.”

Tim Grierson

Best picture chances

Of all the films to date involving the Iraq or Afghanistan conflicts, The Hurt Locker had the biggest impact on audiences, probably because Bigelow played it as a nail-biting adrenaline-rush thriller rather than an issues-based picture or anti-war piece. The film has the potential to grab key Oscar nominations and has already been named best picture of the year by New York and Los Angeles critics groups, as well as being nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture (drama).

What Screen said

“This is closer in spirit to Fight Club than other recent Iraq-set fare, although The Hurt Locker is visually reminiscent of everything from Jarhead to The Kingdom, and is evidently a war film… Technically, this is all you can ask from a war film, and Barry Ackroyd shoots low and intensely. A big relief is the lack of a powering, throbbing soundtrack; Bigelow allows her characters to make their own case without the score pumping it out for them.”

Fionnuala Halligan

Best picture chances

If the focus at this stage is on the performances of Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard for awards attention, Lone Scherfig’s An Education is quietly building momentum as a best-picture contender for capturing its social period so acutely and weaving such a compelling patchwork of characters, as played by a strong ensemble cast.

What Screen said

“This lively period drama could well find a berth in the US arthouse circuit, which craves period English pictures. Scherfig gives 1960s London that mix of wariness and opportunity that was felt when Britain finally emerged from the shadow of the Second World War… Besides the period setting, there is something old-fashioned, even Victorian, in this tale.”

David D’Arcy

Best picture chances

The biggest hit of Tarantino’s career to date, Inglourious Basterds was also embraced by audiences and many critics as his best. Indeed, this gung-ho war movie surprised many who thought it would be a bloody Dirty Dozen-style action epic and instead were given a series of long, dialogue-heavy scenes, mostly in French and German, and revolving around an attempt by a French Jewess to sabotage Nazi high command at a film premiere. The film has been nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture (drama).

What Screen said

“Even though there is some action and a fair smattering of Tarantino’s customary blood-spilling, the film-maker devotes much of Inglourious Basterds’ running time to dialogue. As might be expected, Tarantino the screenwriter shows off his ear for a witty back-and-forth or monologue with flamboyant frequency.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

If any animated film has a shot of securing a best picture Oscar nomination for the first time since Beauty And The Beast in 1991, it is Up. Pete Docter’s magical adventure had the hardest of hearts sobbing within its first 10 minutes. Probably the best-reviewed film of the year, Up is a shoo-in to win the animated feature Oscar, and is highly likely to cross over to the best picture category.

What Screen said

“Up has humour and action aplenty to enthral children, but it should engage adults in equal quantities, who will respond to its rich emotional content… The colours are ravishing, while the 3D enhances the images without playing any in-your-face tricks… It will be difficult for any other film to match the storytelling genius and gorgeous 3D imagery which Docter and his team have achieved.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

The journey of fashion icon Tom Ford and his debut film A Single Man began with rave reviews at Venice and Toronto, where The Weinstein Company snapped up US distribution rights. Ford’s elegant debut may illustrate his fascination with beauty, but it also demonstrates a talent for storytelling and a fearlessness at tackling some of life’s bigger issues. It is destined to catch fire in several categories, and a place on the best picture shortlist is not out of its grasp.

What Screen said

“This adaptation of the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood, about a gay British college professor in Los Angeles coping with the death of his partner, is both stylistically assured and quietly moving. It also represents a quantum leap for Colin Firth, who gives his most nuanced, compelling performance to date in the lead role. Julianne Moore is a worthy support to Firth as a lonely, gin-tippling woman who is still in love with her best friend… A Single Man is good at evoking and sparking complex emotions, but it resonates above all because of the way it turns a single man’s single day into a spiritual journey from despair to transfiguration… Given the right timing, the film should play well at the broader end of the prestige arthouse market.”

Lee Marshall

Best picture chances

A sprightly period piece that is both amusing and tragic will always tickle the fancy of awards voters, especially of the older variety, and The Last Station has the added benefit of beloved stars such as Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer in leading roles. Hoffman’s most appealing film to date has already achieved a slew of Independent Spirit Award nominations and could be the little film that came out of left field.

What Screen said

“Sterling performances by a cherry-picked Anglo-American cast and the hook of a good story well told lift this conventionally staged period piece about Tolstoy’s tragicomic final months above the level of made-for-TV drama… Based on Jay Parini’s 1990 novel of the same name, Hoffman’s likeable biopic walks a nice edge between drama and comedy.”

Lee Marshall

Best picture chances

Sheridan has a knack of making intense character dramas that catch fire with Academy voters. My Left Foot (1989) and In The Name Of The Father (1993) were both best picture nominees and The Field and In America scored major nominations. Brothers has all the ingredients of another Oscar player and that could easily include a best picture nomination.

What Screen said

“Brothers is that rare animal, a US remake of a fine foreign-language film which works on both a creative and thematic level in its conversion to a US setting. Susanne Bier’s explosive 2004 film is effectively re-imagined by writer David Benioff and director Jim Sheridan, and their Brothers is tight, tense and emotional, addressing the issue of soldiers returning from the war in Afghanistan in the context of an expertly told melodrama.

Bier and her co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen specialise in setting up excruciating moral dilemmas, which sometimes veer on contrivance, yet deliver searing portraits of human behaviour. Sheridan and Benioff remain faithful to this ethos, while developing an authentic fresh milieu in a US military town and a set of newly drawn characters to play out the story.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

A Serious Man has its detractors but its supporters are passionate, and the Coens have an outside chance at a best picture nomination for their wittiest film to date. Winner of the best picture Oscar in 2007 for No Country For Old Men, the brothers might be too smart to secure across-the-board love with this film and are likely to be on surer ground with True Grit next year.

What Screen said

“A unique alchemy seems to take hold on those sporadic occasions when the Coen brothers decide to get down with their ethnic roots. Eighteen years after mining the Jewish auteur subculture of 1940s Hollywood for their now-classic Barton Fink, the prolific duo deconstruct the Jewish suburban community of their youth with an astringent emotional and atmospheric specificity, producing a frequently inspired and always vigorously felt dark comedy that ranks with their finest. Having gone the movie-star route for their last effort, Burn After Reading, the Coens have assembled a stage-savvy cast for A Serious Man, showcasing their considerable giftswith a pungently witty script that would not be out of place in a live theatrical setting.”

Jan Stuart

Best picture chances

Rob Marshall’s second big-screen musical after 2002 best picture Oscar winner Chicago, Nine should go all the way to a best picture nomination if only for the spectacle of a dazzling star cast in 1960s fashions dancing and singing up a storm. Nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture (comedy or musical), Nine has all the ingredients to delight cine-savvy Oscar voters.

What Screen said

“One of the most hotly anticipated talent packages this decade, the big-screen version of 1982 Broadway hit musical Nine is a razzle-dazzle star-fest which tries to make up with flash and glamour what it lacks in substance. A must-see for upscale crowds enticed by the prospect of another Chicago-style musical event, Nine will achieve some crossover into the wider audiences who lapped up that blockbuster. Marshall and his screenwriters have taken Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit’s stage musical and retooled it for the screen, dropping large swathes of plot, changing others and using only eight of the original songs. Yeston has written three numbers for the film.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

Meyers has so far failed to snag Oscar nominations for herself or her films as a director (What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday). It’s Complicated could change all that, not just because Meyers taps into the romantic confusion of the wealthy Hollywood set, but because she coaxes rich comic performances from Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. The film has been nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture (comedy or musical).

What Screen said

“Boasting a glittering fifty-something star trio in Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, it’s
an old-fashioned romantic fantasy about the love problems of the very rich that is tailor-made to win over big audiences and should succeed in its mission… Box-office prospects are probably even greater than Meyers’ 2005 hit Something’s Gotta Give… Streep gives one of her most relaxed, unmannered comic performances. It’s ironic that in today’s youth-obsessed culture she has found her box-office stride in her late fifties; similarly it’s a testament to Meyers that a film about love among ageing divorcees has such box-office heat.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

Jackson leaves the fantasy milieu for which he won his Oscars and tackles Alice Sebold’s popular and challenging novel about the murder of a teenage girl in 1973 Pennsylvania and the aftermath for her family and murderer. While critics’ opinions have been mixed on the film, Jackson’s name will make it a must-see for awards voters.

What Screen said

“While The Lovely Bones is as dark as it gets thematically, it will still be an event movie for the adult audience. Both Jackson and the novel have myriad fans who will be eager to see what the New Zealand master has done with it… Jackson captures the grim essence of the novel even while compressing much of its character development and plot detail. And if the rhythm is problematic, his film-making bravado is constantly in evidence, most notably in the heart-stopping scene when Lindsey breaks into Harvey’s house. Jackson’s eye for the period detail is impeccable, and he has cast a young and exciting actress in the leading role: 15-year-old Irish ingénue Saoirse Ronan.”

Mike Goodridge

Best picture chances

It may be too bleak for some but The Road is also one of the year’s bolder artistic visions and acclaimed by most critics as an effective adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel. An outsider, but a contender nonetheless.

What Screen said

“There is so much in this picture, from dread, horror, to suspense, bitterly moving love, extraordinary, Oscar-worthy art direction and a desperate lead performance from Viggo Mortensen which illustrates perfectly the wrenching fear of parental love. But its hopelessness will make The Road hard-going for general audiences. Artistically, though, this film is a success and anyone who sees it is unlikely to ever forget John Hillcoat’s interpretation of McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic planet where “each day is greyer than the one before”. Production designer Chris Kennedy, using mainly Pennsylvania but also post-Katrina locations in Louisiana, presents a world which is dying slowly — Nick Cave’s sparse soundtrack punctuated by the crashes of trees falling to the ground… A bleak Mortensen, his face etched like an El Greco painting, urgently and convincingly conveys his character’s love and desperation, the actor’s physicality heightening the sense of reality.”

Fionnuala Halligan

Best picture chances

Although Bright Star did not perform at the box office with the success of Jane Campion’s 1993 breakthrough The Piano, it is still in theatres in the US after three months on release, and has now grossed more than $4.4m for fledgling distributor Apparition. Universally well-liked and considered a return to form for the Oscar-winning Campion, it could build all the way to the Oscars.

What Screen said

“Beautifully crafted in every department, from the composure of the camerawork to the precision of the costume and production design, Campion ensures Bright Star’s pictorial appeal is matched by an emotional engagement, thanks to a universally fine cast. The integrity of all the performances is indicative of the overall quality of a film that has an honesty of approach to the period and the emotional heart of a tragic story that proves to be immensely moving.”

Allan Hunter

Best picture chances

A feelgood film for the adult crowd, Julie & Julia saw Nora Ephron back in the box-office spotlight after a string of duds. Telling the story of Julia Child and her first experiences with French cooking was a risk that paid off, and Ephron and her star Meryl Streep had a rousing thumbs up for their interpretation of the US icon. Julie & Julia has been nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture (comedy or musical).

What Screen said

“In this whimsical effort by Ephron, Streep largely nails Child’s distinctive physical attributes and eccentric, if naot downright campy, mannerisms. Julie & Julia is a good-natured film which will be best savoured by US kitchen goddesses, Streep and Ephron fans, skewing female and older.”

Fionnuala Halligan

The Boys Are Back
Creation
District 9
Everybody’s Fine
The Hangover
The Informant!
Me & Orson Welles
The Men Who Stare At Goats
The Messenger
The Proposal
Public Enemies
Sin Nombre
Where The Wild Things Are
The Young Victoria