As Roger Ebert notes, this does seem like one of the easier years to predict winners, especially in the acting categories, making long-winded analysis unnecessary. For once, however, the Best Picture category is legitimately, um, up in the air with only a few days to go.

Early this morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this year's Oscar® nominations. Leading the pack were "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker," with nine nominations each. I think it's already safe to say the Best Picture winner will be one of those two films.

Yep, it's that time of year. Tomorrow morning the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce this year's Oscar nominees. The biggest news this year is the expansion of the Best Picture category to ten nominees, presumably to pull more box office hits into the mix, leading to bigger ratings for the ceremony's TV broadcast.

As I said back in November, I've been compiling a list of my choices as the ten best films of the last decade. I've barely scratched the surface of my to-see list, but with 2009 in the books, I thought I'd go ahead and rank what I've seen so far.

Movies are a big part of my life. I devour them. I analyze them. I deconstruct them. But more than anything I enjoy them.