THIS WEEK’S PROJECTIONS
BEST PICTURE Projected Nominees [1] “Invictus” (Warner Brothers, 12/11, trailer)

WILL DOC VALENTINO BE WEARING OSCAR THIS YEAR?
I want to take a moment to discuss something that surprisingly few others seem willing to address… Things can get a bit awkward for Oscar bloggers around this time of year because we’re invited to all sorts of events and parties for films and people about whom we will later have to write. Some feel that we shouldn’t ever attend these because doing so will bias our future coverage. Perhaps that would be true for a film critic, who must share their personal feeli

WHAT’S UP, DOC?
This evening, a friend wanted to know (a) what I thought it would take for a documentary to snag one of the slots in the newly-expanded best picture category, and (b) whether or not I thought any of this year’s documentaries stood a chance at doing so. Here was my response: I don’t believe that a documentary will be among this year’s best picture nominees, even though there are now 10 slots in the category. For a doc to make the cut in future years, I suspect that it will have to be a rousi

THIS WEEK’S PROJECTIONS
BEST PICTURE Projected Nominees [1] “Invictus” (Warner Brothers, 12/11, trailer

“PRECIOUS” STAR BUSTS A MOVE, BOOSTS OSCAR HOPES
Though something like this “Ellen” appearance by best actress hopeful Gabby Sidibe (“Precious”) may seem like nothing more than spontaneous throwaway fun, I suspect that it was actually quite carefully considered. After all, the biggest challenge facing Sidibe this awards season is convincing voters that she is not playing herself in the film — that though Gabby, like Precious, is a significantly overweight young black girl, she is not illiterate and morose but rather intelligent and in possession of a healthy amount of joie de vivre. Why does doing so matter? Because it will show