The Best Picture category at the Oscars 2010

This year they doubled the number of films nominated for best picture at the Academy awards. With 10 films to choose from we actually have three genre films represented: Avatar, District 9 and Up! As there hasn't been a genre win for best picture since 2004 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, this is pretty exciting. Here are my opinions on the chances all three titles have.

District 9: I've heard a mixed bag of reviews of this film (no I haven't seen it yet, although it's in my ziplist - that's like a Canadian Netflix for you US residents) mostly positive ones from people who don't watch a lot of genre and very negative ones from genre fans who preferred the film when it was called Alien Nation. I do cheer the fact that it means we can look forward to more world genre films entering the mainstream.

Up: The movie was amazing, beautiful, and actually brought me to tears at one point. Although I'm talking about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which like Up, was nominated for Best Pic and best Pic in another category (forgien for Tiger, Animated for Up) back in 2001, I can say the exact same thing about this gem from Pixar. I think people are happy Up was nominated, but being up for the same award in two categories will kill it's chances of taking home the big one.

Avatar: Sorry haters, but this film without a doubt has the best chance of being a genre Best Picture. It's list of wins and nominations so far is pretty extensive, and like I said in a previous post, it may be seen as a great SF flick in the long run.

So there you go, my final impression, Avatar has the best chance of the genre pics nominated to win, but we'll see in March.