Hollywood story Oscar battle a classic
And even their movies have something in common: Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, a tense drama set among American soldiers who defuse bombs in the Iraq war and Canadian filmmaker James Cameron's Avatar, a big-budget fantasy that sends American soldiers to a distant planet to pacify the natives and steal their riches.
The move was meant to add some more populist titles to the list, but those who were hoping for the Academy to step out and include the raunchy comedy The Hangover or the relaunch of the fanboy epic Star Trek were disappointed (although that movie got four nominations in technical categories.) The one bow to convention was the nomination for The Blind Side, the Sandra Bullock crowd-pleaser — based on a true story — about a white family that adopts a poor black boy and helps him become a football star.
Aside from that, the best picture nominees are just a more diverse collection of the kind of critical darlings that mark the Oscars, although even there the academy can be hard to decipher. For instance Up — an animated movie that tells the touching story of an old man who takes a trip to South America, fulfilling a promise he made to his late wife — is nominated for best picture and also as best animated movie, part of its collection of five nominations. It becomes only the second animated film to be nominated in the best picture category, after Beauty and the Beast in 1992.
Meanwhile, the well-received Crazy Heart isn't on the list, although it did get three nominations in other categories.
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's Second World War fantasy — and recipient of eight nominations — in which a group of American soldiers sets out to slaughter Nazis and winds up with the entire German high command in an exploding movie theatre;
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire — which got six nominations — the grim but hopeful story of a young black woman who fights out of a horrific childhood of abuse and neglect to find her own life;
Up in the Air, an early Oscar front-runner, directed by another Canadian, Jason Reitman, about a businessman who flies around the U.S. to help businesses lay off excess employees. In total, it got six nominations, including its entire main cast;
District 9, a metaphorical sci-fi film set in South Africa in which invading aliens are locked in apartheid-type camps, which received four nominations. It was directed by Neill Blomkamp, a South African-born filmmaker who now lives in Vancouver;
An Education, another based-on-truth story about a young woman's coming-of-age in 1960s London when she meets an older man. It got three nominations in total;
And A Serious Man, the Coen Brothers film, inspired by their own father, about a university professor who suffers the torments of Job when everything in his life starts going wrong.
Notable by their absence are Invictus, the true story of how a South African rugby team helped heal the wounds of apartheid, and Nine, the big-budget musical whose star, Daniel Day-Lewis, was also snubbed.
The race for best actor is dominated by Jeff Bridges, a five-time nominee who has never won an Oscar, although he did get the Golden Globe award for his portrayal of a down-and-out country singer in Crazy Heart. His closest competition will come from George Clooney, who brings his smooth charm to the role of the corporate downsizer in Up in the Air.
In the best actress category, the race is thought to be between Bullock, whose performance of the feisty mother in The Blind Side is a departure from her reputation as a romantic-comedy sweetheart, and Meryl Streep, earning a record 16th nomination for her hilariously immaculate impersonation of Julia Child in Julie & Julia.
In the best director race, Bigelow — who recently won the Directors Guild of America prize, a fairly reliable indicator of Oscar success — and Cameron are facing off against Tarantino, Reitman and Lee Daniels, director of Precious, and only the second African-American director (after John Singleton in 1991) to be nominated in the category. The most notable absentee is Hollywood favourite Clint Eastwood, who directed Invictus.
Bollywood industry is soon going to witness another sensation debut soon as actor Govinda’s daughter Narmadaa is soon going to enter the film industry as she has signed her three Hindi film projects. The actress will be seen debuting on the silver screen in 2011 and her third movie will be seen in 2012. Actress Narmadaa is now 21 years in age and has taken up acting lessons from a reputed London institute. 
General News – 25th September 2010: Endhiran is on and that is what the reason the phone calls to Multiplexes, Cineplexes and Movie Cinemas are getting numbered. The Online Booking of Endhiran is on in Tamil Nadu and especially the Movie Theaters in Chennai that offer Advance booking are in news and searches.
It is said that, “Love makes the world go round”. But it looks like Neil Nitin Mukesh is a firm film believer of the idiom. He says, “All the characters that I’ve played whether it was in Johnny Gaddar or Jail have behaved in the way they have because of love!”. Also in his next releasing film Lafangey Parindey, Neil has romanced with the lovely Deepika Padukone which has formed the focal point of the story. Though at the time of those movies we haven’t come across possessive Neil, which in this case has been talk of the town.
Sonam was looking absolutely vivacious in a very gorgeous sari. It was quite a surprise for everyone to see her in traditional outfit, considering her close association with big brands nowadays.
Shahid and Kareena Kapoor, his long term girlfriend broke up just before the release of Jab We Met and since then he has been linked with several actresses like Amrita Rao and Vidya Balan. Shahid Kapoor and Kareena’s kiss was caught by a phone cam and created a controversy. He was also supposed to be dating Priyanka Chopra.
Lara Dutta's wardrobe malfunction
It's official - Lara Dutta and tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi are engaged. The news was confirmed by Lara today (September 19) who tweeted a smiley face before retweeting what Mahesh had posted on his Twitter page - "So DuttaLara and me got engaged in NY last week. Its official now.."
