The 2010 Oscars: What to Bet On

Well the Academy Awards are upon us again. This year should be rather interesting. First off, the telecast is going to be co-hosted for the first time since the very first Academy Awards in the 1920s. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin are both funny men and rumors are that the producers of the show were inspired by Neil Patrick Harris' hosting of the Emmys, so they want the hosts to stay funny and keep things moving along. Of course, were I the director or producers, that means I would have gotten Neil Patrick Harris, but whatever.

The other major change is that there are now 10 nominees for Best Picture. This was supposedly because, in too many past years, there were only 5 slots and that meant many of the pictures were ones that the average person had not seen. To try and fix this, they broadened the field to make it so independent and small films could be nominated along with the bigger blockbuster movies that people might have seen.

So, this is how the showdown between ex-spouses James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow. Of course, Cameron has once again set box office records with his amazing technical tour-de-force "Avatar." Bigelow, meanwhile, created one of the most intense and amazing thriller/war films ever made, "The Hurt Locker." Bigelow has been winning awards left and right but Cameron won the Golden Globe as the one major award upset in this race. For my money, however, "The Hurt Locker" was the best movie of the year. I think it will win and I feel it should win.

I also feel that Bigelow should and will become the first female director to win Best Director. Not only is it time for a female director to win, but the movie she made is just phenomenal. She has made a movie as tense and thrilling as any made in recent memory. She manages to get deep into the psyche of men who choose to become the bomb squad in war time. This movie does not let up and is a remarkable achievement and was even filmed in a remarkable way in hostile circumstances, not far from where the very real war was going on.

I don't think it will be a bad night for "Avatar." Yes, it is a great movie. Yes, it is a movie capable of completely transporting you to another world. However, it is a technical movie. The amazing things it did, such as the motion capture technology and the improved 3D technology, were really all in the realm of the technical. The performances were good, but it was the spectacle that really grabbed you. So, I hope it wins every technical award that it has been nominated for.

I think that Sandra Bullock is likely to have an amazing night when it comes to her Best Actress nomination. I cannot actually base this upon her performance as I saw "The Proposal" but not "The Blind Side" which is what she is really nominated for. However, the tide seems to be floating in her direction and people tell me the movie is good. It seems a safe bet.

There seems to be no stopping Jeff Bridges getting the award for Best Actor for "Crazy Heart." I hope this is the case. I still feel that Mickey Rourke was horrible robbed in the previous year and should have won for "The Wrestler." "Crazy Heart is now this year's "The Wrestler." Bridges has been around for a long time turning in solid and memorable performances even in bad movies and should probably have been nominated or won a long time ago.

Another seeming lock-in is for Best Supporting Actress Mo'Nique for the movie "Precious." Her portrayal not only sears the screen but sears itself right into your brain. I have seen some strange hostility toward this movie from strange critics who seem to just want to create noise for the sake of creating noise. However, you cannot deny the power behind Mo'Nique's performance. She is normally a comedian and this role strips that away and leaves a raw, powerful performance in its wake. This seems another safe bet.

Finally, there is the Best Supporting Actor role and that also seems to be locked in. Christoph Waltz turned in the most memorable performance in a remarkable and memorable film called "Inglourious Basterds." He manages to somehow illicit uncomfortable laughs as you prepare for his smile to turn into a murderous sneer. Never has an actor turned asking for a glass of milk into a statement of such menace and fear.

The other categories seem less sure. This is one of the first years where it seems like the major categories are such lock-ins. Thus, making your office pools and things of that nature much harder to predict and win. If everyone picks the favorites, more than likely several people are going to win. Even when it comes to the Best Animated Film category, you cannot bet against Pixar and the remarkable "Up."

So, get out those brackets and make your predictions. Just don't be surprised if the pool of money is much smaller when everyone wins this time around.