According to The Hollywood Reporter, a total of 248 motion pictures released in 2010 are possible contenders for Best Picture of the year. The numbers are shrinking: 274 films were eligible in 2009, and 281 in 2008.
To be considered, a film must be theatrically released first – which means no VOD before theatres -and it has to play at least a full week by December 31st at least in Los Angeles.
While the newsbit does not mention it, I’m almost sure “Toy Story 3” and “How To Train Your Dragon” will be shoved on over to the Best Animated film category. However, I was curious as to what films that were not eligible. I was not surprised by the films given distribution by Magnolia Pictures and their genre arm Magnet. The majority of those films picked up hit a film fest or two, but wind up suffering an ugly fate of HDNet and VOD before a limited theatrical run. So this excludes films like “I’m Still Here ” (the Joaquin Pheonix fake documentary) and the mildly pleasing ” Centurion”. But one exclusion surprised me.
That’s Country Strong , which opens this week nationwide. There was a lot of Oscar buzz around lead Gweneth Paltrow, but the media was stunned that there wasn’t a Golden Globe nomination for her. Well, the film played one day in Nashville in 2010. Guess what? The film isn’t going to make the Oscar cut either. That’s not saying the film is bad or Paltrow doesn’t deserve any accolades. It just means she -and her film- didn’t make the cut.
Here’s what I’ll look for in the comments section from the Int’l friends. What film would you like to see make the Oscar Best Picture shortlist *if* you could only pick one out of the 248? Especially one that didn’t get much attention and *does* qualify under Academy guidelines?
Kick-Ass!!!! (for matthew Vaughn!)
I really dislike having 10 nominees for best picture. IMO this makes it much less prestigious to be nominated. I think it’s really just about ratings. If they can get 5 mainstream films in the nominations, I think they’re willing to bet that there’ll be higher ratings. Contrary to Darren’s guess, I think they will most definitely nominate Toy Story 3 for best picture. TS3 was the highest grossing film of 2010 and one of the highest rated. How could they not nominate TS3 for best picture?
Yes, 10 again this year. Maybe they can go ahead and nominate all 248 of them while they’re at it.
Are they doing 10 nominees for Best Picture again this year?
I would like to see “The Ghost Writer” get nominated.
Wasn’t Up nominated for best picture last year? They probably won’t nominated two animated films but I’m almost sure Toy Story 3 will be nominated for best film.