2009 Oscars Looking More like a Slumdog Millionaire Victory Lap

The 2009 Oscar nominations will be out in just 10 days. However, most critics have already guessed what most of the Oscar nominations will be. Not only that, most critics have already guessed who the big winners will likely be. This is especially true for Best Picture, as Slumdog Millionaire keeps winning just about every big pre-Oscar award. At the Golden Globes, while the acting races provided some surprises, Slumdog Millionaire just kept rolling along. This means that it will take some big chances for Slumdog Millionaire to slip up at the 2009 Oscars now.

This week alone, Slumdog Millionaire swept its categories at the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes. Not only did Slumdog Millionaire and director Danny Boyle win Best Picture and Director, composer A.R Rahman and writer Simon Beaufoy won as well.

The only movie other than Slumdog Millionaire to win more than one Golden Globe was The Wrestler, for Mickey Rourke and Bruce Springsteen. Both Slumdog Millionaire and Danny Boyle have been sweeping Best Picture and Director prizes for weeks now.

For weeks, the 2009 Oscars have had low expectations, since 2008's crop of movies is regarded as week - at least compared to 2007. But in a field of movies that aren't breaking out, Slumdog Millionaire's lead in the Oscar race looks more and more safe.

This is due to both Slumdog Millionaire's popularly with art house audiences and critics, and the lack of ground gained by the movie's rivals. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the original favorite, but has lost a lot of ground due to Slumdog Millionaire's rise and some very mixed reviews. Milk may be a sleeper, but most expect that homophobes in the Academy will stop it from winning, like they supposedly did for Brokeback Mountain.

Films like Frost/Nixon and Doubt are not regarded as serious threats to win, while The Dark Knight is just trying to get in, and countless other contenders have fallen off the map this Oscar season.

The only thing that could stop Slumdog Millionaire and Boyle at the Oscars is if one of these movies makes a final miraculous push, like Crash did. History may be against it as well, since movies very rarely win that don't have at least one Oscar nominee in its cast. Slumdog Millionaire may have no acting nominees at all, with young lead Dev Patel still trying to squeak into the final Best Supporting Actor slot.

In the meantime, Slumdog Millionaire and Boyle keep winning everything and building up a big lead for the Oscars. But with so much time left until Oscar night, the lead could shrink enough for Slumdog Millionaire and Boyle to feel a little less confident. However, in a field of such flawed competitors, that may be harder to accomplish.

Sources

Kansas City Star- "Slumdog Millionaire wins 4 at Golden Globes" www.kansascity.com/418/story/975201.html

Rope of Silicon- "Golden Globe Winners vs. Oscars: The 2009 Update!" www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/golden-globe-winners-vs-oscars-the-2009-update