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» And the nominees are...

In a regular year, having seen five Best Picture nominees by the day Oscar nominations were announced would mean I had swept the category early.

But with a little over a month to go before the Academy Award ceremony, I'm only halfway there.

The nominations, announced today, feature 10 Best Picture nominees, the first time since 1943 that there's been more than five. And I was happy to see my two favorite films of 2009 (so far anyway, I'm still trying to catch up) in the running for the top prize — “District 9” and “Up.”

One of the reasons the Academy expanded the field was to try and attract more viewers to the award ceremony by including some more popular, but still deserving films (remember last year when “The Dark Knight” didn't make the cut?). I think it's a good chance to recognize some other movies, and the list of nominees doesn't seem watered down.

The main battle appears to be between “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” for Best Picture and Best Director honors.

To me, there's no contest.

“Avatar” is a visually and technically amazing movie... that tells a story you've seen and heard a million times before.

It's not a bad movie by any stretch, but I got the impression watching it that the story was serving as a medium for the groundbreaking technology, instead of the technology being used to tell a compelling story.

On the other end of the spectrum from the gazillion-dollar, record-breaking blockbuster is “The Hurt Locker.” Where “Avatar” takes place on a fantastical alien world, “The Hurt Locker” is about as down-to-Earth as a non-documentary can get in its depiction of an elite bomb-disposal unit in Iraq.

The film avoids making political statements (not that that's something to be avoided necessarily) and instead focuses on the unbelievable pressures facing soldiers in a war zone. It's a tense, terrific film and should make Kathryn Bigelow the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director.

As for Best Picture, I'm still pulling for “District 9.”

In this film publicity image released by 20th Century Fox, the character Neytiri, voiced by Zoe Saldana, left, and the character Jake, voiced by Sam Worthington, are shown in a scene from, “Avatar.” The film has been nominated for an Oscar for best picture.

In this film publicity image released by Summit Entertainment, director Kathryn Bigelow, center, is shown on the set of “The Hurt Locker.” Bigelow has been nominated for an Oscar for best director for “The Hurt Locker.”

http://oscar.go.com/nominations/nominees