Ok, so now that we’re slightly over the announcement that the Academy Awards has changed the Best Picture category to include 10 nominations — a cheap way to get ratings and to pander to populist thinking and those disappointed by the exclusive of not-really-worthy Best Picture films like, “The Dark Knight,” and “Wall-E,” — there is a positive side.
Well, possibly. The upside? More room for smart and worthy indies (or foreign films) with not gigantic Oscar campaign sized-wallets, i.e. maybe “The Wrestler” or “Frozen River.” The down side? Michael Bay earns a nomination, or even “Star Trek,” (sorry, not Best Picture material ever).
Maybe it opens up the field to more interesting films and then mainstream, big-budget films like, “Frost/Nixon” — a film that many point at when thinking of the old, conservative Oscar guard mentality — can live next to smaller, also-deserving films, and or be jettisoned all together with this new bold, let’s-get-ratings-thinking.
Ok, so without over thinking it and quickly. Here’s 10 films that could make the Oscar noms this year.
Five That Seem Like No-Brainers Now:
1. Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela drama “Inviticus” starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon
2. Peter Jackson’s family murder drama, half of which takes place in heaven, “The Lovely Bones,” starring 3. Saoirse Ronan and Mark Wahlberg among others.
4. “Nine” – Rob Marshall’s Weinstein Company driven musical starring Daniel Day-Lewis and every leading lady in Hollywood (Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz)
5. “Up”- Pete Docter’s sweet and endearing Pixar film, which will make up for last year since the new Oscar 10 seems to be all about reparations.
Five More That Could Squeeze In There Depending On Arrival & Quality
1. “Public Enemies” – Michael Mann’s 30s gangster pic with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale
2. Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life” starring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt, if it ever appears this year.
3. “The Road” – John Hillcoat’s harrowing post-apocalypse drama starring Viggo Mortensen.
4. “Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Biutiful,” a mysterious police-crime drama starring Javier Bardem, but there’s zero indication if it’s coming out later this year or what.
5. “An Education” feels like a stronger bet than “Amelia” at this point, but it has the benefit of already winning rave reviews at Sundance whereas the latter doesn’t hit until October.
Six Films That Will Greatly Benefit From This News and Could Round Out The Five (honestly we think these are strong contenders)
1. Kathryn Bigelow’s arresting Iraq War drama, “The Hurt Locker”
2. Jane Campion’s excellent 18th century romance, “Bright Star” featuring an excellent Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw.
3. “Sin Nombre” – Cary Joji Fukunaga’s astounding Mexican gangs and immigration drama [ed. the Playlist staff totally disagrees with me here]
4. “Precious” – The Sundance hit starring Mo’Nique
5. “The Informant” – Steven Soderbergh’s agricultural price-fixing industry black comedy starring Matt Damon
6. “Green Zone” – Paul Greengrass’ Iraq War thriller starring, again, everybody’s favorite, Matt Damon.
Although they haven’t said, and they can’t make too many other changes or the show will be super, super long, uhh, expect more changes. Your thoughts? This list was written admittedly, very fast. And yes, that’s more than 10 pix, sue us.