Oscars come with a few twists as films face off for coveted statuette

After Britain’s BAFTAs and France’s Césars, it’s Hollywood’s turn. On Sunday, the 82nd annual Academy Awards will draw the film world down the red carpet and into the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles to wrangle for the coveted golden statuettes.

Though the glitzy event has long been derided by more high-brow film buffs as a popularity contest in which industry insiders vote for their friends and predictably reward the same types of movie, this year’s Oscars come with a few unusual twists: a David-vs.-Goliath showdown in a newly expanded Best Picture category; two ex-spouses battling it out for Best Director; a producer banned from the ceremony for unsportsmanlike conduct; and a gritty prison saga with a shot at giving France its first Best Foreign Film award in nearly 20 years.

A symbolic face-off in a revamped category

For the first time in Oscar history, the race for Best Picture has doubled in size to include ten films, opening up the field to surprise nominees such as a science fiction thriller from New Zealand (“District 9”), a critically lauded Pixar animated adventure (“Up”), and a feel-good sports drama that The New York Times described as…“devoid of drama” ("The Blind Side").

"Avatar" director James Cameron.

The frontrunners, however, are widely considered to be “Avatar”, the tree-hugging science fiction epic from James Cameron (of “Titanic” Oscar glory), and “The Hurt Locker”, Kathryn Bigelow’s cerebral action film focused on a bomb disposal unit in Iraq.

The stark differences between the two favourites, as well as the personal histories of the directors and some last-minute controversies, have made for an especially tense and emblematic face-off. “Avatar”, which recently became the highest grossing film of all time, has been almost unanimously praised for its sweeping technical invention. The movie was released in swirling, sumptuous 3-D that brings the images onscreen within the viewer’s reach. But amid the excitement about cinematic breakthroughs, there were grumblings about the lack of originality in the film’s story and corniness in its anti-imperialist message; one online critic called the movie “’Dances with Wolves’ in Outer Space”.

"The Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow.

“The Hurt Locker”, on the other hand, is an independently produced, relatively low-budget and low-grossing film with no big-name stars or accessible political angle to soften its unflinching dissection of wartime violence and heroism. The film swept a number of US critics’ prizes and the BAFTAs, and a victory on Sunday night would likely be cast as a triumph of disciplined artistry over budget-busting technology.

If “The Hurt Locker” does indeed slay “Avatar”, it would also be the triumph of a woman over her ex-husband; Bigelow and Cameron were previously married. Perhaps more historically notable would be a win by Bigelow in the Best Director category, as she would be the first woman to ever take home the award.

"The Hurt Locker" co-producer Nicolas Chartier.

But “The Hurt Locker”’s strong standing in the final stretch has taken a few hits. A US army sergeant filed a lawsuit earlier this week claiming the film-makers snatched an account of his experiences in Iraq without his consent. Another embarrassing development came a few days earlier, when one of the film’s producers, Frenchman Nicolas Chartier, was banned from the ceremony after sending an email to Academy voters urging them to support his movie instead of a "500-million-dollar film". The clear reference to rival “Avatar” was a breach of Oscar rules against negative campaigning.

A chance for France and an eclectic group of actors

If Chartier won’t be there to collect any statuettes on Sunday, France still has a chance at Oscar glory with Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” up for Best Foreign Film. Reworking an American-style tale of gangsters and individualism with more typically French reflectiveness, the film is riding on momentum from 9 César awards and a Best Foreign Film prize at the BAFTAs. If “A Prophet” manages to best favourite “The White Ribbon”, Michael Haneke’s austere parable about a dysfunctional German village on the eve of World War I, it will be France’s first win in the category since 1992.

The acting races this year are less suspenseful, but the expected winners are a motley crew of improbable Oscar success stories -- with the exception of Jeff Bridges, whose long career will likely be recognised with his first Academy Award, for his work as an aging country singer in “Crazy Heart”.

Sandra Bullock, the go-to girl for crowd-pleasing date movies, is tipped to win the Best Actress prize for a rare dramatic turn in “The Blind Side” as a wealthy Southern woman who adopts an African-American teen. German Christoph Waltz, unknown State-side before playing the loquacious Nazi in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”, is considered a lock for Best Supporting Actor. And barring any upset, black stand-up comic Mo’Nique will take to the stage to accept a Best Supporting Actress prize for her role as an abusive inner city mother in the Harlem-set melodrama “Precious”.