Avatar and Minesweeper leading the race for Oscars

With nine nominations each, “Avatar” from James Cameron (photo) and “Minesweeper” by Kathryn Bigelow will deliver a fierce battle at the Oscars. “The Prophet” by Jacques Audiard defend France by claiming the title of the best foreign film.

AFP – The battle for the Oscars 2010 is launched between the film “Avatar” and “Minesweeper”, which have each been selected nine times Tuesday in the race for precious statuettes.

The two feature films competing in the most prestigious categories of Best Film and Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for “Minesweeper” and her ex-husband James Cameron for “Avatar”. They are also both nominated for best photography, music, editing and sound mixing.

For the trophy for best film – the most coveted – the monumental fresco 3D James Cameron, and deminers in Iraq of American Kathryn Bigelow will face “The Blind Side,” “In the Air”, “Inglourious Basterds” “Precious,” “An Education”, “District 9″, “A Serious Man” and “Up”, the latest masterpiece from Pixar.

This is the second time in the history of the Oscars as a film animation contributes to the Holy Grail of American cinema, after “Beauty and the Beast” for Disney (1992).

The Academy of Arts and Sciences also nominated film “Up” in the category of best animated film, opposite “Coraline”, “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “The Princess and the Frog” and “The Secret of Kells “.

“Inglorious Basterds” by Quentin Tarantino, who portrays U.S. soldiers left to hunt Nazis during the Second World War, “Precious” by Lee Daniels, the darling of American critics, shown at Sundance last year, and ” In the Air “by Jason Reitman, starring George Clooney, are the other heavy weight announced.

The first collected eight nominations, the second and third, six. All three are nominated for both the trophy for best film and best director.