OSCAR UPDATE

In some rather shocking news, Academy president Sid Ganis announced that this year there will be 10 Best Picture nominees at this year's Academy Awards instead of the usual five. In the press release he stated that this decision was an attempt for the Oscars to go back to its roots when ten nominees was not out of the norm. I, on the other hand, see it as the Academy responding to recent snubs of higher profile films like The Dark Knight and Wall-E and smaller endeavors like A History of Violence and Half Nelson. While the announcement is exciting, I feel like this decision takes away from the prestige of the five films competing for best picture, diluting the contenders. Yes, I think some films that deserve to be nominated will be nominated, but many films that don't deserve the recognition will also be competing for the top prize.

I decided to go ahead and predict what I think would be nominated. Here are my nominees with five alternates:

1. Invictus
2. Nine
3. Shutter Island
4. Amelia
5. Bright Star
6. Up
7. Precious
8. An Education
9. The Hurt Locker
10. Funny People

11. Avatar
12. The Road
13. A Serious Man
14. The Lovely Bones
15. 500 Days of Summer