KATHMANDU: Before the Oscar nominations you had —The National Board of Review that awarded Best Film: Up In The Air

Best Actor: Up In The Air’s George Clooney and Invictus’s Morgan Freeman; Best Actress: An Education’s Carey Mulligan

Best Supporting Actor: The Messenger’s Woody Harrelson; Best Supporting Actress: Up In The Air’s Anna Kendrick

Best Director: Invictus’s Clint Eastwood

Best Adapted Screenplay: Up In The Air’s Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner; Best Original Screenplay: The Coens, A Serious Man.

In the Golden Globes —

Best Picture/Drama: Avatar

Best Actress: The Blind Side’s Sandra Bullock, Best Actor: Crazy Heart’s Jeff Bridges.

Best Picture/ Comedy/ Musical: The Hangover,

Best Actress: Julie & Julia’s Meryl Streep, Best Actor: Sherlock Holmes’s Robert Downey Jr

Best Supporting Actress: Precious’s Mo’nique, Best Supporting Actor: Inglourious Basterds’s Christoph Waltz

Best Animated Film: Up

Best Director: Avatar’s James Cameron

Best Screenplay-Motion Picture: Up In Air and Best Original Song: Crazy Heart

The Screen Actors Guild Award announced —

Best Performance by a Cast: Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actor: Inglourious Basterds’s Christoph Waltz; Best Supporting Actress: Precious’s Mo’nique

Best Actor: Crazy Heart’s Jeff Bridges and Best Actress: The Blind Side’s Sandra Bullock

The National Society of Film Critics Awards —

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Best Actor: The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner; Best Actress: Seraphine’s Yolande Moreau

Best Supporting Actress: Precious’s Mo’nique; Best Supporting Actor: Inglourious Basterds’s Christoph Waltz and Bright Star’s Paul Schneider

Best Director: The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow

Best Screenplay: A Serious Man’s Joel and Ethan Coen.

The Producers Guild of America —

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Best Animated Film: Up

The Directors Guild of America Award: Kathryn Bigelow of The Hurt Locker

So let’s count now:

Up In The Air comes in five times.

Invictus comes in twice.

An Education just comes in once for Best Actress.

Up, the animated film comes in four times.

A Serious Man — two nominations.

Avatar — two nominations for Best Movie and Best Director in The Golden Globes.

Precious’s Mo’nique is Best Supporting Actress three times.

The Blind Side’s Sandra Bullock — two awards for Best Actress.

Sherlock Holmes’s Robert Downey Jr — one for Best Actor.

Jeff Bridges of Crazy Heart — three nominations (two awards) for Best Actor.

Inglourious Basterds — three nominations.

Bright Star — one for Best Supporting Actor.

And now for the big one The Hurt Locker directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Avatar director James Cameron’s ex-wife) — four.

My favourite is The Hangover, which got just one Golden Globe for Best Picture-Comedy/Musical.

Forgive me for boring you but there’s a point. For the first time since 1943, the 82nd Annual Academy Award nominations has 10 movies nominated as Best including the surprise District 9 about an alien ship landing in South Africa and A Serious Man, the Coen Brothers’ movie about a college professor inundated by blackly comic never ending woes.

The Best Actor has Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart as a down-on-his-luck country singer and Colin Firth’s A Single Man about a day in the life of a college professor, directed by fashion designer Tom Ford and based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel.

The Best Actress has Helen Mirren as Leo Tolstoy’s wife and Tolstoy is played by Christopher Plummer up for a Supporting Actor in The Last Station.

Okay, what do I think is The Best Picture? Either The Hurt Locker or Avatar (which I haven’t seen but which has mixed reviews but huge Box Office returns).

The Best Actors either Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker or Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart.

Best Actress either Julie & Julia’s Meryl Streep or Gabourey Sidibe in Precious.

Best Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.

Best Supporting Actress Mo’nique in Precious.

Best Director James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow or Quentin Tarantino.

Now you start thinking.