Gee, no pressure. Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers has seen 40 minutes of Avatar and believes that, of Oscar’s Best Picture Ten, Avatar will be the one to beat (thanks again to Jordan):
Travers does Oscar talk and fall preview stuff, but the money shot:
With the Academy Awards’ Best Picture category expanded from five films to 10, James Cameron’s Avatar, the Titanic director’s first film since, well, Titanic, seems like a lock for a nod. The less-than-impressive teaser trailer already has the movie-loving message boards worried, but Travers insists that after seeing 40 minutes of the “spectacular” 3D footage, it’s Cameron’s Best Picture category to lose. Also in the Oscar hunt are Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, which might net George Clooney a Best Actor trophy, and the musical Nine, which stars Daniel Day Lewis and is partly based on Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2.