It's David versus Goliath as Avatar and The Hurt Locker go head to head at the Academy Awards, writes Garry Maddox.
Will it be the tall blue aliens on Pandora or the bomb disposal experts in Iraq? The interplanetary fantasy or the tense Middle East reality? One of the most expensive movies in Hollywood history, which has taken more than $US2 billion ($2.3 billion) at the box office worldwide, or the $US15 million movie that has not returned even that much and looked like heading straight to DVD in Australia?
Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards have been dominated by two starkly contrasting movies - the sci-fi epic Avatar and the tense war drama The Hurt Locker - in an unusually low-key year for Australians.
The director Warwick Thornton, who collects an award most weeks for the Aboriginal romance Samson & Delilah, was out of luck with a nomination for best foreign language film. There was nothing either for the cinematographer Dion Beebe for shooting the musical Nine. And there were no nominations for an Australian actor for the first time since Titanic swept the Oscars - an 11-year streak that has included 17 nominations and four wins.
Instead, in a year in which another James Cameron epic is joint front-runner with Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker - both with nine nominations - the Australian contenders are a talented young Sydney filmmaker and a designer who has been making Jane Campion's and Gillian Armstrong's movies period-perfect for decades.
Luke Doolan's Miracle Fish, about a schoolboy who dreams he is the last person left alive on Earth, is nominated for best live-action short.
Janet Patterson is a contender for the best costume design award, for Bright Star, which follows previous Oscar nominations for The Piano, The Portrait of a Lady and Oscar and Lucinda. Is there such a thing as fourth time lucky?
The academy was second time lucky with the reintroduction of 10 best picture nominations this year. The last time the category had 10 nominees was in 1943, when Casablanca won.
The move, designed to broaden the Oscars beyond serious art-house fare and deliver bumper TV ratings, was never going to be necessary in a year in which Avatar carried off the impossible - telling a story about environmentalism, colonialism and ruthless capitalism with dazzling 3D effects while casually smashing box office records. It now looks like taking a phenomenal $100 million in Australia.
But instead of flaky best-picture nods - some liked the academy's initiative because it allowed the likes of Tropic Thunder to come into best picture contention - the move delivered both quality and popular appeal.
The two movies that have deliciously thrown Cameron and his former wife Bigelow against each other are contenders in the best director category. The field also includes George Clooney at his charming best as a much-travelled businessman in the comic Up in the Air and Quentin Tarantino at his violent best in the war fantasy Inglourious Basterds.
Equally deserving are the dramatically potent Precious, about a pregnant teenage girl with everything stacked against her in life, and the heartfelt animation Up, about an elderly curmudgeon taking one last adventure.
Rounding out the best picture field are a fresh sci-fi movie in District 9, an inspiring drama about race in The Blind Side, an interesting-rather-than-brilliant British drama in An Education and a frankly baffling selection in the Coen brothers's comic A Serious Man. The nomination of a film that many reviewers disliked must reflect Hollywood's affection for the former winners.
The lead-up awards suggest there are firm favourites for all four acting categories.
For best actor, the front-runner is Jeff Bridges, who plays a broken-down country singer in Crazy Heart. While it is too early to start clearing space on the mantelpiece, it would be smart to start drafting a speech.
For best actress, Miss Congeniality has turned Miss Intense. Sandra Bullock is the favourite for playing a sassy mother who helps a young American football player in The Blind Side.
While she had made her name with comedies, it shouldn't be a surprise that Bullock can turn so effectively to dramatic roles. She spent years trying to play the role - a boxer - that won Hilary Swank an Oscar for Million Dollar Baby and was icily impressive as a Los Angeles bitch in Crash.
Bullock is up against two veterans in Meryl Streep (who has a record 16th nomination for Julie & Julia) and Helen Mirren (The Last Station) as well as two newcomers in Carey Mulligan (An Education) and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious).
Mo'Nique, who is Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter combined as the mother of that troubled teenager in Precious, must be odds-on to win the award for best supporting actress. Almost as likely for the best supporting actor award is Christoph Waltz, who showed how much fun it can be playing a Nazi in Inglourious Basterds.
Hollywood pundits are suggesting the results of the producers and directors guild awards indicate Avatar will not have the same Oscars success as Titanic, at least when it comes to best picture and director.
''The Hurt Locker is definitely the front-runner,'' says Tom O'Neil, an awards season pundit for the Los Angeles Times's theenvelope.com.
''There is a clear consensus within the industry, which is strange because The Hurt Locker is a movie without stars and it's made no money. In recessionary times voters seem to be turning their back on the most successful film ever made in favour of a money loser.''
O'Neil agrees that the Oscars showdown between the two films could be characterised as David versus Goliath.
''Actually it's even better than that because they used to be Mr and Mrs Goliath.'
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