The Social Network, a story about the prickly author of Facebook, and
The King's Speech, a saga of Queen Elizabeth II's stammering father, are to be announced shortly, among likely nominees for Hollywood's top prize, at Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
The 83rd Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 27, 2011, telecast live from the historic Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on ABC at 8PM ET.
The two films are the best-picture front-runners. With a best-drama win at the Golden Globes and top honors from key critics groups, “The Social Network” seems to have the edge. But “The King's Speech” pulled off an upset over the weekend for the main prize at the Producers Guild of America Awards, whose winner often goes on to claim best picture at the Oscars.
Other forecasts include drama
The Fighter, the sci-fi mystery
Inception, the psychosexual thriller
Black Swan, the adventure memoir
127 Hours, the Western
True Grit, the lesbian-family comedy-drama
The Kids Are All Right, the crime dramas
The Town and
Winter's Bone and the animated smash
Toy Story 3, the top-grossing movie released in 2010.
Absolute favorites appeared in most top categories, including Globe dramatic-actor winner
Colin Firth as
George VI in “The King's Speech.” Among his likely nominees is
Jesse Eisenberg as sarcastic Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network.”
There are also two women in a race for best actress –
Annette Bening as a lesbian mom in “The Kids Are All Right” and
Natalie Portman as a ballerina becoming unnerved in “Black Swan.” Both won Globes: Bening for best actress in a musical or comedy, and Portman for dramatic actress.
Christian Bale is the favorite for supporting actor as
Dicky Eklund, an energetic boxer fallen on hard times in “The Fighter.”
Melissa Leo and
Amy Adams both are strong supporting-actress contenders for that film as well.
Launched last year for the first time in Oscar history, the new tradition of nominating 10 major Hollywood films for best picture will again be up “for your consideration” in 2011 in a clever move by the Academy to further promotion the Oscars with a wider audience.
While duel hosting duties were acquired by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin last year, this year's hosts are even more of surprises deuce in actress
Anne Hathaway and actor
James Franco to help attract a younger bunch to the telecast by putting a fresher face on the ‘over-the-hill' Oscar establishment.