Thoughts on 10 Nominations

The Academy is reverting back to ten nominations for Best Picture this year, which will a.) make the show interminably long and b.) make my never-ending rant in defense of summer film pretty much void. And since I secretly love how long the show is, both of these have me cheering the decision.

Entertainment Weekly is pretty sure they've got seven of the ten possible Best Picture nominees nailed down:
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Up In The Air
Inglourious Basterds
An Education
Up
The Hurt Locker
Precious

I have been torn for years about the existence of the Best Animated Film category, because on the one hand, its presence means that when an animated film is released that is so good it deserves the Best Picture award (Wall-E), I know it won't get nominated because it is MORE LIKELY to win the Best Animated category. So having Up be an almost guaranteed choice for a Best Picture slot is bittersweet - I know it won't win, but I love that it's there, but did we really need ten slots to fill in order for it to get there in the first place?

(On the other hand, I haven't really decided if it would be my personal Best Animated choice, because I liked Fantastic Mr. Fox so very much, so maybe I'm on the fence for no good reason at all.)

So what fills out the rest? (500) Days of Summer, District 9, A Serious Man. (My predictions, not my choice.)

It's interesting that if there were only five slots this year as per usual, I think it's fairly obvious what they would be:
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The Hurt Locker
Up In The Air
Precious
Inglourious Basterds

I love that this expansion is giving other brilliant films a chance they wouldn't normally have; when I first heard about them opening up the category, I felt overwhelmingly like they'd be shoving stuff in just to fill out the noms. But could it be that the Academy, like myself, thought this was just too good a year for film? Did they realize that, even though only one can win, it would do them good to acknowledge film normally outside of their comfort zone? In a normal year, films like Up, (500) Days of Summer, and even Star Trek wouldn't have gotten anywhere near that award - now there's Oscar buzz all over them. So good on the Academy for diversifying a little, even though I know that my personal choice won't win.