Oscar Nominee Films For 2010

Although nominees won't be officially announced until February, watch for lots of news on the latest crop of Hollywood hits that will continue to generate buzz throughout the entire awards season:

An Education - The early Sundance favorite with a nationwide release in theaters in October, is the coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s London played by 24-year-old Carey Mulligan (and a shoe-in for a Best Actress nod.)



The Hurt Locker - High tension and great acting combine in this thriller about an elite Army bomb squad in Iraq.

Invictus - Brilliant casting scores in this epic that chronicles Nelson Mandela's efforts to bring the 1995 Rugby World Cup to South Africa following the fall of Apartheid. Starring Matt Damon as South Africa's rugby team captain and Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela.

Up - This year's Wall-E, a funny and poignant animated tale about a 70-year-old man and an 8-year-old boy on a wild adventure in South America.

Avatar - James Cameron's fantasy sci-fi blockbuster, from the people who brought you Titanic. Have you seen the trailer? That is all.

Up In The Air: Last week we looked at my frontrunner for this year's Best Picture, James Cameron's 3D furry-fest Avatar.  But we must not ignore this year's other contenders, not the least of which being Jason Reitman's Up in the Air.Reitman's third feature came into this year's award season with a good deal of positive buzz.  However I'm inclined to believe this is an industry-wide apology for lap-dancer Diablo Cody winning an Oscar for the text message transcript she called the Juno screenplay while Reitman's impressive directing was all but ignored.