Last year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded the Best Picture race from five nominees to 10, expanding the choices and the scope.
Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, and Winona Ryder
Nina (Portman) is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica.
When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Ryder) for Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well.
The Social Network
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and Armie Hammer
On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea.
In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication.
Inception
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, and Marion Cotillard
Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable.
Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption.
127 Hours
Starring: James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, and Clémence Poésy
127 Hours is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's (Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah.
The Kids Are All Right
Starring: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hutcherson and Mia Wasikowska
Two teenaged children conceived by artificial insemination get the notion to seek out their birth father and introduce him into the family life that their two mothers have built for them.
Once the donor is found, the household will never be the same, as family ties are defined re-defined, and re-re-defined.
Toy Story 3
Featuring the Voices Of: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Allen
As Andy prepares to depart for college, Buzz, Woody and the rest of his loyal toys are troubled about their uncertain future. Toy Story 3 is a new adventure that lands the toys in a room full of untamed tots who can't wait to get their hands on these 'new' toys.
It's pandemonium as they try to stay together, ensuring 'no toy gets left behind.
Winter's Bone
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Lauren Sweetser, and John Hawkes
17 year-old Ree Dolly (Lawrence) sets out to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, Ree and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods.
The Fighter
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo
The story unfolds on the gritty, blue-collar streets of Lowell, Mass, where Dicky, the boxer, was once known as “The Pride of Lowell” having gone the distance with the world champion Sugar Ray Leonard.
However, after losing that fight, Dicky’s fallen on hard times. His boxing days are behind him and his life has become shattered by drug abuse…
True Grit
Starring: Josh Brolin, Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld
14 year old Mattie Ross's (Steinfeld) father has been shot in cold blood by the coward Tom Chaney (Brolin), and she is determined to bring him to justice.
Enlisting the help of a trigger-happy, drunken U.S. Marshal, Rooster Cogburn (Bridges), she sets out with him.
The King's Speech
Starring: Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin
Plagued since childhood by a paralyzing stammer, the future King George VI of England has given up hope of finding a cure for his impediment.
His concerned wife urges him to seek the help of an iconoclastic Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, who insists on a level of familiarity with his new patient that the royal prince is loath to permit.
