Your Oscar Nomz

Howdy gang,

It's that time again...the glitz, the glamor, the back patting, the over hyping, the gratuitous displays of opulence...everything you've come to know and love about Hollywood, crammed in a nifty little golden statue stamp to drive DVD sales and advertising rates. Yep, Academy Awards are here again! This year, to accommodate even more DVD sales, the "academy" has expanded the best picture category into 10 films! That's right, now nearly all of our big holiday movies can be nominated so that there's no films out on the playground on the seesaw by their lonesome, crying in the rain. Is it just me or does this cheapen the already thin weight I put behind the Oscars? Call me jaded, and I know we've covered this already, but this is just proof that it's all about the money. Here's our big ten:

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Yep. Be sure to see updated DVD packaging hitting shelves soon with the "Academy Award Nominated" at the top. Trust me. It's no huge surprise here, and we'll have more coverage on next weeks show on the full list. Also, stay tuned for my guide on how to win at your local Oscar betting pool. You don't even have to watch the movies to predict who will win. Though if you're interested in watching trailers of all the nominees in various categories, you can do so over HERE at the oscar site and they've got them all in a nice little high quality streaming interface.

I'm not going to list all the nomz here (mainly because they are ALL OVER THE FREAKING INTERWEBZ), but one pleasant surprise was the nomination of The Secret of Kells which is a European animated feature from Cartoon Saloon. A very surprising nomination from an academy that so recently had "Kung Fu Panda" as one of it's best animated nominees. This year's animated category is stacked, and I'm actually more eager to see the winner here than in the main categories.