Oscar Fever Ramps Up

With the announcement of the Oscar nominations yesterday pundits are falling over themselves to predict who will walk away with one of the most coveted statuettes in the world on the evening of Sunday March 7th 2010 and with an obvious shake up in proceedings things may not be as easy to call as other years!

For starters there are now 10 nominees in the Best Picture category, doubled from the usual five, after it was changed back in 1944. There are also two hosts this year in the form of Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin instead of the usual loner up on stage. For only the second time since the Oscars began an African American, Lee Daniels, has been nominated in the Best Director category along with Kathryn Bigelow who becomes only the fourth woman to achieve the same feat.

I’m in two minds about the nominations. On the one hand a lot of the smaller budget movies have been acknowledged – The Hurt Locker, Precious and An Education to name a few which is fantastic for the movie industry. However, Avatar has also received nine of them and though it’s easy to appreciate the incredible detail in the film and the level of technology required to achieve such astounding special effects, that is ultimately what it is, a special effects movie that cost $200 million to make which kind of puts it an unfair advantage over the grittier, better written and more intriguing films that came out in the last 12 months.

Of course, like everything else in this world there are odds available on who’s going to win what on the night so if you want a piece of the action get clicking below with the latest odds from Paddy Power Bookmakers…

Best Picture

• Avatar 1/2
• The Hurt Locker 11/8
• Up in the Air 14/1
• Inglorious Basterds 16/1
• Precious 33/1
• An Education 80/1
• Up 80/1
• The Blind Side 100/1
• A Serious Man 100/1
• District 9 125/1

Best Director

• The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow 4/7
• Avatar – James Cameron 5/4
• Up in the Air – Jason Reitman 20/1
• Inglorious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino 25/1
• Precious – Lee Daniels 40/1

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) 1/5
• George Clooney (Up In The Air) 4/1
• Morgan Freeman (Invictus) 16/1
• Colin Firth (A Single Man) 18/1
• Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) 20/1

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) 4/6
• Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) 13/8
• Carey Mulligan (An Education) 10/1
• Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) 10/1
• Helen Mirren (The Last Station) 25/1

Best Supporting Actor

• Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds 1/20
• Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones 10/1
• Woody Harrelson – The Messengers 14/1
• Matt Damon – Invictus 25/1
• Christopher Plummer – The Last Station 25/1

Best Supporting Actress

• Mo’Nique – Precious 1/10
• Diane Kruger – Inglourious Basterds 8/1
• Penelope Cruz – Nine 12/1
• Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart 14/1
• Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air 20/1