Best Picture of 2010

Another year of review comes to a close and this is the most recent year of movies I've tackled for this project thus far. As such, many of these movies were still relatively fresh in my memory, so unlike older films, of which my opinion can sometimes change significantly over the years, my assessments of these films mostly remained the same as they were on my first viewings.

The nominees for Best Picture of 2010 are:

• 127 Hours
• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The Kids Are All Right
• The King's Speech
• The Social Network
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit
• Winter's Bone

As one might expect from a year with ten nominees, there's quite a wide range of scope in this group, yet if I were to try to find the common ground, I'd have to say that all of these stories have a gripping intensity (to varying degrees and styles).

Those that perhaps gripped me less than the others - and will therefore be the first to be set aside in the race to be named my favourite of the year - are Black Swan, Toy Story 3 and Winter's Bone. It gets tougher from here, but I'll remove indie darlings 127 Hours and The Fighter next, despite the great appreciation I feel for them. In a similar vein, I'll also say goodbye to True Grit and Inception.

I'm down to just three films now, all of which are examples of top-notch filmmaking and, perhaps not coincidentally, are also keen character studies. The Social Network is fantastic, The Kids Are All Right is genuinely delightful, but I'm going to side with the Academy and crown the utterly charming The King's Speech as my favourite Best Picture nominee of 2010.

Best Picture of 2010
Academy's choice: The King's Speech	Matt's choice: The King's Speech

Your choice:


Let me know your favourite of 2010 by voting in the poll above. Next up, we're heading back to the 1970s to take a look at some absolute all-time classics.

And the nominees for Best Picture of 1974 are:

• Chinatown
• The Conversation
• The Godfather Part II
• Lenny
• The Towering Inferno

Stay tuned...