In previous years blockbusters like Lord of the Rings, Titanic and The Departed have dominated awards proceedings but this year it's small movies that are in the Oscar spotlight.This year's Best Picture nominees have made very little impact at the box office, despite being championed by the critics.Those nominated, Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Me, make up only 3% of the overall gross at the American box office, this will be the second lowest box office performance by the Best Picture nominees in twenty years.No Country For Old Men has made just $61 million in the U.S. with There Will Be Blood grossing even less with just $32 million. Only surprise four times nominated Juno can call itself a hit taking $125 million at the U.S. box office.It's Sweeney Todd that has enjoyed the most success of late topping the UK box office on the week of release before going on to top the international box office chart.
However despite it's success the film and it's director Tim Burton were over looked, bagging just one nomination for Johnny Depp in the Best Actor category.
If you glance down the list of nominations the movies included in all categories fall into two categories.
On one side we have the male dominated, violent pictures like There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men and Sweeney Todd.
And on the other the more gentle pictures that boast plenty of female talent, with many of them tackling difficult issues of teenage pregnancy, senile dementia and physical disabilities.
Performance drives this year's nominations not size of production and technical brilliance that have done so well in the past.
So the small independent movies are finally taking centre stage however the serious and grim subject matter of many of the pictures may cast a shadow of doom and gloom over the whole ceremony.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw