Avatar and The Hurt Locker are going to go head to head next month for the Best Picture and the Best Director in what looks to be one of the most interesting Oscar battles.
In one corner we have the box office dominating, big budget Avatar and in the other the gritty and critically acclaimed The Hurt Locker.
Not to mention that filmmakers James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow used to be married, which makes it even more interesting!
While Academy voters tend to celebrate the smaller movies that don't always succeed at the box office they have backed the blockbuster, in the form of The Lord of the Rings and Titanic, in the past.
Without The Hurt Locker in the mix Avatar would be a sure fire winner to take home the big gongs so how will the Iraq drama impact on Avatar's chances?
September saw the awards season kick off, it's when all the potential Oscar movies come out of the woodwork after a summer of blockbusters.
At first The Hurt Locker was seen as a big of an outsider for success before coming the dark horse and then the obvious front runner.
The movie was critically applauded on it's release and it soon became clear that it had the support of the critics.
The Hurt Locker won gongs at the Austin Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle Awards.
Avatar wasn't really an awards contender until it was the surprise winner of Best Picture and Best Director at the Golden Globes, wins that made everyone sit up and take note.
Overnight Avatar came the frontrunner for Oscar glory and was strongly expected to win the Best Picture Oscar.
But since then The Hurt Locker and it's director Kathryn Bigelow has made history by becoming the first woman to win the Best Director at the Directors Guild of America Awards, which is always a good indicator going into the Oscars.
And if she was to win the Academy Award for directing she would become the first woman ever to win.
They will both fight it out for Best Picture, Best Director, Cinematography, Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Score.
Surprisingly Avatar was overlooked for screenplay, while The Hurt Locker was nominated. But Avatar has to be favourite to scoop the Best Visuals gong.
So the competition is tensely poised for a rather exciting evening next month. Will the awards be equally split between the two? Is there a favourite amongst the Academy voters? Or will a movie like Inglourious Basterds muscle in and spoil the show?
Despite liking Avatar my feet are firmly in the The Hurt Locker camp as it was the best movie of 2009.
But which movie gets your vote?
The winners will be announced 7th March.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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