The 82nd Academy Awards: The Year of the Game-Changer

In the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards, nominees and other celebs attend a steady stream of parties, free gift events and even other award shows — like Friday night’s Independent Spirit Awards. By the time the actual Oscar ceremony arrives on Sunday, anyone would be tired.

Us laypeople, on the other hand, spend the weeks before the awards being relentlessly bombarded with critics’ predictions, articles about the Oscars (they’re on Sunday, thanks for the reminders, media!) and nary a party invite or gifting suite in sight.

Despite all the hoopla, doesn’t this year’s ceremony seem to evoke different feelings and carry with it a particular meaning that previous Academy Awards have not? We decided to probe deeper into this idea and realized that for more reasons than the 10 Best Picture nominees, the 2010 Academy Awards will forever represent a game-changing year. Why? Here are our selections for nominees, ceremonial features — which makes it sound like they’ll be sacrificing a goat onstage, but you’ll see what we’re talking about, and other ways the 82nd Academy Awards will change the game henceforth.

The Best Picture

Best to cover the elephant in the room first: Yes, there are 10 Best Picture nominees this year instead of the usual 5. According to the L.A. Times, "The change is a direct result of a two-year, in-house search for ways to broaden the appeal of the show, and with good reason — viewership is sagging, most dramatically among young people who know they won't hear the names of films they love when the envelopes are opened."

This explains why the Best Picture nominees this year include the usual art-house fare like An Education, A Serious Man and even The Hurt Locker (a film which has benefited greatly from its award season momentum). These films are now mixed in with ones that certainly garnered a lot of eyeballs at the box office: Avatar, Up and The Blind Side. Film critics may scoff at movies such as District 9 (sci-fi) and feel-good fluff like The Blind Side being included in the night’s biggest award category, but the 10 picture format has certainly turned the Best Picture race into a slightly more interesting competition than usual, even if it seems to be a dead heat between Avatar and The Hurt Locker.

The Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director at the BAFTAs, making her the first female in history to take home the award. She and ex-husband, James Cameron, have been splitting wins for the category at most major award shows, but Bigelow may have the edge here. According to the March 5 issue of Entertainment Weekly, "History is certainly on [her] side: In 55 out of 61 years, the winner of the Directors Guild award has gone on to claim the Oscar as well." Bigelow scooped up this prize in January, so she may very well become the first female ever to win the Academy Award for Best Director.

The Ingénues

Almost every year, a young actress is nominated for her performance in her first major role ever — think Anna Paquin’s win at the age of 11 for her role in The Piano. This year, however, there are three young women nominated right out of the gate for exceptional breakout performances that helped define the 2009 cinematic year. Gabourey Sidibe is nominated for her performance as an abused, molested, yet ever-hopeful teen in Precious. She finally won the category for the first time at the NAACP Image Awards, and she also captured the gong at the Independent Spirit Awards, but this, unfortunately may be Sandra Bullock’s year (more on her to come later).

Two other ingénues also had their moments in the spotlight this year. In An Education, Carey Mulligan plays a clever British schoolgirl in 1961 (before the women's liberation movement) losing her innocence as she gains an education about life. In Up in the Air, Anna Kendrick holds her own against George Clooney, playing a smart college grad who sets her sights on revolutionizing the business of laying people off, after unwisely following her college boyfriend to Omaha. Neither will win, but being nominated will change both of their careers in an infinitely positive way.

The Comediennes

Don't worry; you weren’t alone in thinking that you'd never see Sandra Bullock and Mo’Nique’s names with the epithet "Oscar nominee." Well how about the fact that both of them are considered front-runners in their respective categories? Sandra Bullock, better known for acting in thrillers like Speed and comedies like Miss Congeniality, may be poised to pick up a Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Blind Side. True to her humble nature, however, Bullock has promised that no matter what, she will also attend this year's Razzie Awards should she win the award for Worst Actress of the Year for her role in All About Steve.

While Bullock faces some competition from long-time Academy shut-out Meryl Streep (she’s 0 for 12 since winning for Sophie’s Choice in 1983), Mo'Nique seems to have the Best Supporting Actress category locked up. She’s picked up the award at every major award show including the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. It may not seem like such a shock that Mo'Nique would win an Oscar for her performance as a horrifying, abusive parent in Precious, since she is mostly known for her comedy shows and cable talk show. Her role in Precious showed audiences a completely different facet of the comedian, and solidified her presence as an actress, not just a comedian.

The Message

Going green is on everyone’s minds these days, especially since Al Gore's global warming presentation, An Inconvenient Truth, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2007. The 82nd Oscars have taken on the environmental message in almost every possible way. James Cameron has been attending lectures and conferences to speak about the environmental message he hopes audiences will take away from Avatar. His wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, held a nationwide competition to find an unknown designer to create an Oscar dress for her out of sustainable, eco-friendly materials. (The winning design, by the way, is in a color now called "Avatar-blue.") Eco-conscious celebs like Leonardo Dicaprio, Zachary Quinto, the Madden Brothers and Jessica Alba also flocked to the 7th annual Global Green USA Pre-Oscar party, aimed to benefit the "greener cities for a cooler planet" campaign.

The Main Event

What would a game-changing year be without some major switches to the game itself? After the 2008 Oscar telecast brought in some of the lowest ratings ever, producers immediately began a massive overhaul of the show to bring in younger viewers — and keep them there for the entire show — even during the Oscar doldrums. A.k.a the awards for best short/documentary/foreign film/other films young audiences have most definitely not seen.)

Last year's Hugh Jackman-hosted musical extravaganza saw a slight boost in ratings, but the producers still wanted to revamp the show this year to appeal to a younger crowd. So what have they done, exactly? For starters, enter "House DJ" Joel Madden. "I wanted there to be a party atmosphere and I wanted to make sure everyone in the room was having a great time," said co-producer Adam Shankman.

Then, there’s the introduction of a second host. Not that Hugh Jackman didn’t hold his own as a singing and dancing dynamo last year, but the combination of Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin playing off each other as this year’s hosts has even the curmudgeonliest of critics excited. Never in the show’s 82-year history have there been dual hosts, and they’ve certainly tapped two of the funniest men around for the inaugural gig.

In addition to the "house DJ," two hosts and a bevy of young presenters, this year's Oscar team is using every possible social media outlet to get the young folks excited about the show. For the past few weeks, they’ve held a competition on Oscar.go.com called “Behind the Dress,” where viewers could vote in a Project-Runway style competition to determine the dress that will be worn by the Oscar "escort" (a.k.a the lovely woman who tells winners and presenters where to go when they face that awkward moment of "Do I exit stage right or stage left?").

Viewers are also invited to watch the Red Carpet on a live feed broadcast on the show’s Facebook fanpage — they can even ask celebrities questions on the carpet via Twitter and Facebook. Also, if you're looking for a place to watch the show, 50 charities in 50 different locations are hosting viewing parties all across the country. Click here to find a viewing party near you.

As you can see, no matter what the outcome of this year’s award ceremony is, the 82nd Academy Awards will forever mark a decided change in the award-show game. If not for any of the reasons provided above, then for this final one alone: For the first time ever, you’ll be able to (virtually) sit next to your favorite celebs in the audiences via their Twitter feeds. Gotta love technology!

Photos from top: Dave_B_ via Flickr, Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of BET Networks and BET Interactive, courtesy of Joel Madden, courtesy of Oscar.com and ABC.