Culture Blues

Oscar Fever Blog: The Field of 10

As the Oscars approach, we'll be taking a look at some of the films, people and stories that will make the 2010 Oscars the most recent yet. And don't forget to stop by on Sunday when we'll be liveblogging the Oscars from our ivory tower.

The 2010 Oscars will forever be remembered as the year that The Academy Awards became wholly populist and inclusive. The expansion of the Best Picture field from 5 finely honed cinematic masterpieces (an exclusive field that’s previously immortalized such brilliant films as 2005’s Crash and 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire), has been expanded to include more viewer friendly fare – clever actioners (District 9), cartoons (Up), and Sandra Bullock movies (The Barf Side). This strategy, intended to entice dumdum viewers by giving them some “normal” movies to root for, is completely wasted in a year where Avatar, the most watched movie of the year, was pretty much always a shoe-in nominee. Even with the eight other nominees floating around, the Oscars are looking like a two-horse race between Avatar (stupid, pretty) and The Hurt Locker (challenging, awesome), a real referendum on what direction The Academy sees itself going in the new decade. Check out Variety’s blog for a nice little explanation on how Academy members are casting their super secret ballots this year.

The puppy grows up to become an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens.

What if we would have gone to the 10 film field for last year’s race? That seems like an interesting topic for a blog post! For argument’s sake, let’s say that the below movies are the ones that benefited from this year’s grand expansion.

Up
A Serious Man
An Education
District 9
The Blind Side

What were their 2008 equivalents?

Cartoon that everybody liked -  Wall-E.
Obligatory Coen brothers nomination – Burn After Reading
Underseen indie darling, vaguely transgressive -  Doubt
Critically acclaimed action movie – The Dark Knight
Sandra Bullock movie that doesn’t actually star Sandra Bullock but you get the point -  Marley and Me

What do you think? 10 films – better or worse?

Stay tuned all week for more insightful Oscar Fever talk, and get ready for this weekend when your friends at Culture Blues liveblog the shit out these Oscars.