The Citizen Review " A man goes to the movies. A critic must be honest enough to admit that he is that man." -Robert Warshow

That's right, it's time to tally up the year's best cream of the movie crop. And it doesn't start with the Oscar nominations.

The award shows and top-ten lists that will be released and shown up until February are the most important, most instrumental part of this season. Without these, would the Academy Awards happen?

Well it's our job to be the best, most dutiful reporters we can by dishing out the results of award shows and top ten lists of the world's best critics.

We're actually a little late. The "inner circle" is already being formed. What's the inner circle you ask? It's the small class of films that are the only possibilities for nomination. It's all the nominees and the "almost nominees" which is almost just as good a distinction.

So what's it gonna be? The not-so-small Precious? The very talked-about Up In the Air? The universal epic Avatar? Or something that we've never expected? You never know.

Let the season begin!

Sincerely,

The Citizen Review

Keep in mind, this is a very rough list and will be edited in time. Here we go:

Best Picture (There are TEN!)

Precious

Up in the Air

Avatar

An Education

The Hurt Locker

A Serious Man

Invictus

Where the Wild Things Are

A Single Man

Inglorious Basterds

George Clooney, Up in the Air

Morgan Freeman, Invictus

Colin Firth, A Single Man

Michael Stuhlburg, A Serious Man

Joseph Gordon Levitt, (500) Days of Summer

Carrie Mulligan, An Education

Gabourey Sibide, Precious

Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Penelope Cruz, Broken Embraces

Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air

Matt Damon, Invictus

Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds

Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles

Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Matthew Goode, A Single Man

Mo'Nique, Precious

Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

Mariah Carey, Precious

Penelope Cruz, Nine

Up

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Coraline

Princess and the Frog

But it's a brand new season for Oscars and we're already starting our ROUGH lists.

Can you handle it?

We're so excited!

Matthew's Best Picture Predictions:

Nine

Shutter Island

The Lovely Bones

The Human Factor

Amelia

Those are my predictions, they are early, so they will change defianately. Possible winners; Nine and The Human Factor. Amelia and the Lovely Bones are very sketchy. I don't really know what kind of movie they'll be, it all depends on reviews. Once more movies have trailers, and buzz, the predix will be more accurate. But for now look out for those.

Jack's Best Picture Predictions:

Nine

The Human Factor

Shutter Island

Whatever Works

The Road

Here are my early Oscar predictions for 2009. Obviously it's extremely early to be making any sort of ramifications of what will be nominated, but based on casting, directions or trailers we can hopefully make a pretty accurate estimate. Nine is pretty obvious, it's Rob Marshall and it's cast is studded with Oscar winners (remember Chicago, a few years back? This is that movie for this year). The Human Factor and Shutter Island are also fairly solid picks just on the matters of casting and direction (Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman for THF and Scorsese and Emily Mortimer for SI). Whatever Works is pretty much a stab in the dark. There's a good chance that it won't get nominated, but it is Woody Allen and it has a wonderful cast, so who knows? The Road is another sketchy choice, but this has what some of the others don't: great subject material. The Road the novel by Cormac McCarthy (author of the novel No Country for Old Men, which won Best Picture) won the Pulizter Prize a few years back and therefore is grounds for a good story, let's just hope the producers don't make it too 'action-movie'. Those are my picks!

Sincerely,

The Citizen Review