Best Picture Nominees

And last, the Best Picture Nominees. And remember, I am going to present them in the order they are listed on IMDb.com.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is the story of a man's life, but he is no ordinary man, he ages backwards. We follow his story from birth where he is abandoned on a step through his life and many loves and adventures. This is the type of movie the Academy loves. Grand adventures, full story, in the tradition of Forrest Gump. If you had asked me in December I would have said this was the shoe in for Best Picture, now I not so sure.

Frost/Nixon follows the preparations and filming of David Frost's interviews with former President of the United States Richard Nixon. It shows the back stage wrangling and mind play between to the two men. Although this was a good film, I'm not sure it has much of a chance. It was mainly driven by the personalities of the men involved in the interviews, it wasn't big enough in scope.

Milk follows about ten years in the life of Harvey Milk including his failed elections and his election to San Fransisco's Castro district supervisor. Milk became the first openly gay elected official in the nation and rallied the gay population in San Fransisco. Now we are getting closer to what the Academy likes. Social and political story. This is one could pull off the win.

The Reader follows man remembering two events from his past. First, his affair with an older woman who had him reader stories to her because she couldn't read them herself. And second, the trial of six women accused of being former Nazi Concentration Camp Guards including the woman he had an affair with. Like Frost/Nixon this is a quiet little film that really works based on the performances of the leads.

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of a young man explaining how he could answer the questions on a television game show. But it is more then that. It is the spirit of a boy who grew up in the slums of Mumbai. It is the resiliency of the young man as he struggles against a world that won't let him flourish. It is the determination of the young man to find his true love. What a great movie. It is epic in scale, including scenes in many different locations in India including the Taj Mahal. It is endearing and at time heartbreaking. The question is can it win over the Academy when it could be considered by some as more Bollywood then Hollywood.