A Crowded Field for Best Picture at Academy Awards

10 movies, instead of the usual five, are nominated this year. We ask some filmgoers for their predictions.

28 February 2010

"Avatar" is one of the movies nominated for best picture.

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Next Sunday night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California. Today we tell about the movies nominated for best picture. And we hear about some people's favorites.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: The eighty-second Academy Awards ceremony takes place March seventh at the Kodak Theater. Actors, directors, writers, producers and others will gather in Hollywood, the center of the American film industry.

FAITH LAPIDUS: There is a big difference this year. Ten movies have been nominated for best picture instead of the usual five. This was reportedly done to increase the audience for the televised ceremony.

The ten movies seem to provide something for everyone. There is a big budget science-fiction movie about humans on an alien planet. And there is a small budget science-fiction movie about aliens from on Earth.

There is a tense movie about the war in Iraq. And a new version of the events of World War Two.

There are also two movies about African-American teenagers and the people who help them improve their lives.