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by Julia H. Jackson

Well, it’s that time of year again: Oscar season. This Sunday, March 7,  the Academy Awards will showcase the best films of 2009. The program, which will be hosted by 30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin and noted comedian and actor Steve Martin, will set a new record with the most films nominated for best picture. We thought it telling that some of the best films of the year were book adaptations that we reviewed last year. This is setting the bar high, even for an awards show, and so this year we at Eduify thought we’d help narrow the nominations down to this year’s very best.

1. Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

This year’s best picture nominations feature ten diverse and exciting films: James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar, Quentin Tarantino’s World War II romp Inglourious Basterds , An Education , Peter Jackson’s District 9, A Serious Man by the Coen brothers, Precious (and adaptation of Sapphire’s novel Push), Pixar’s Up, Up in the Air starring George Clooney, The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock, and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker. Could there be a more diverse range, from 3D half-men half-alien avatar adventure flicks to corporate lackeys searching for human connection?

Although all of these films demonstrate Oscar-worthy talent, Eduify’s pick for Best Picture this year is The Hurt Locker. The film stars Jeremy Renner as Staff Sergeant James Williams, who heads a team of American soldiers whose job it is to find and disarm Improvised Explosive Devices (I.E.D.s), homemade bombs that are responsible for the deaths of countless soldiers serving in Iraq. Set in 2004, The Hurt Locker is one of the first seemingly objective films about the controversial Iraq war, and it delivers not only in intense action scenes, but also in the emotional complexity of its characters. Says New York Times film critic A.O. Scott, Kathryn Bigelow uses “hyperbolic realism, distills the psychological essence and moral complications of modern warfare into a series of brilliant, agonizing set pieces.”

2. Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)

Although Jeff Bridges may be best known as “The Dude” or “Duderino” in the Coen Brothers 1998 classic The Big Lebowski, he shows subtly and versatility in his role as aging country singer Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. The independent film follows Blake as he trucks across the American West, performing in out of the way venues and crossing paths with his protégé Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) and Jean, a journalist from New Mexico (Maggie Gyllenhall). Bridges’ acting performance is made even more powerful by the film’s score, which includes the song “The Weary Kind,” written by singer Ryan Bingham and sung by Bridges himself. The song is also nominated for Best Original Song.

Bridges is up against tough odds, though: this year’s Best Actor picks include George Clooney (Up in the Air), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Morgan Freeman (Invictus), and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker).

3. Best Actress: Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)

Director Lee Daniels saw something unique when he cast Gabourey Sidibe as Precious in his film adaptation of Sapphire’s novel Push. It takes a complex and compassionate reading of character to fully embody the role of the film’s protagonist, a young woman who as a teenager has been impregnated twice by her father and is emotionally abused by her mother. Sidibe’s greatest strength are her small, measured movements –shrugs, mumblings and stares—that communicate far more about the reality of this character’s life without melodrama.

The other actresses nominated for Best Actress this year are Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia), Carey Mulligan (An Education), and Helen Mirren (The Last Station).

2. Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Kathryn Bigelow is the fourth woman to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, and if she won, she would be the first. That aside, this honor is well-deserved: not only does The Hurt Locker capture a tense yet important part of the Iraq war, but it does so by relying on a strong narrative and powerful cinematography, creating a psychological and complicated view of war. It’s worth mentioning that this is a big step for Bigelow, whose previous films (Point Break, Blue Steel, Strange Days) were interesting but not challenging in the sense that The Hurt Locker truly faces its spectators.

Bigelow is up against her ex-husband James Cameron (Avatar), as well as Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds), Lee Daniels (Precious), and Jason Reitman (Up in the Air).

1. Best Animated Feature Film: Coraline (Directed by Henry Selick)

In the year of exciting 3D films, Coraline takes the cake, not only because of its imaginative and slightly macabre animation, but because its plot and character journey are truly unique. Based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, the story follows a young girl who discovers a portal to an alternate universe in her house. The film is ingenious in part because it borders that line between childhood playfulness and adult thriller, all in vivid color and eye-popping 3D. Its cast includes Dakota Fanning as the title character, Teri Hatcher, and comedian John Hodgman.

Other films in this category are Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson), The Princess and the Frog (John Musker and Ron Clement), The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore), and Up (Pete Docter).

Sunday’s Academy Awards are sure to be quite the cinematic showdown. Who do you think should win? Download a ballot for this year’s awards and compete with your friends to see how accurate your predictions are!