Predicted Oscar Winners for the 83rd Academy Awards

The nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning by Tom Sherak, the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was assisted by Mo'Nique, who took home the Oscar last year for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. The Oscars will be broadcast Sunday, Feb. 27, on ABC.

The Academy nominated 10 films for Best Picture. Out of this large group, only a few have any real chance of winning. The King's Speech, a British film backed by the Weinstein Company, is the favorite to win after receiving the most nominations of any movie this year with a whopping 12. The production only had an estimated budget of $15 million, has been critically acclaimed, and is stacked with fantastic actors.

The only two obvious challengers are True Grit, which received 10 nominations overall, and The Social Network, which received eight. Two other films that could be in the mix, but would be considered heavy underdogs, are Black Swan and The Fighter. The other films that were nominated were Toy Story 3, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, and Winter's Bone.

Toy Story 3, which earned over $1 billion in worldwide box office, will absolutely not win Best Picture of the year regardless of its merits or popularity. It is very difficult for an animated feature to win in this category, and since it is nominated for Best Animated Feature Film as well, most members of the Academy will cast their votes for it in that category.

Natalie Portman, fresh off her Golden Globe win, will probably take home the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Black Swan. The movie was a little too dark to be considered a front-runner for Best Picture but that should not prevent Academy members from voting for her individually. However, Portman is currently starring in a romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher that may turn off a few of the snootier voters. This could open the door for seasoned veterans Nicole Kidman and Annette Bening. Michelle Williams and Jenifer Lawrence were also nominated.

A real battle for Best Actor might be brewing this Oscar season. Javier Bardem, Jesse Eisenberg, or James Franco could walk away with the statue and it would be hard to scream that someone was robbed. However, the two nominees with the best chance to win are Colin Firth for The King's Speech and Jeff Bridges for True Grit. Last year, Bridges won this category with his performance in Crazy Heart. It is hard to tell if this plays in Bridges' favor or not for picking up another Oscar this year. It seems plausible that Academy members will lean in Colin Firth's direction, as he has never won an Academy Award before, while Bridges has won so recently and was nominated several other times as well.

It is difficult to predict how the roughly 6,000 voting members of the Academy will ultimately cast their ballots. There is bound to be a surprise or two at the Oscars and plenty of broken hearts, but it is the most exciting night in the movie business every year for that very reason. There is no truly safe bet when it comes to the awards, which is why we tune in each year and watch with bated breath as they open the envelopes and read the winners.

Sources:
http://oscar.go.com/nominations
http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worldwide&yr=2010&p=.htm
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1504320/