If There Had Been Ten: 2001

The Nominees:

1. A Beautiful Mind

2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

3. Godsford Park

4. Moulin Rouge

5. In the Bedroom

The Next Five:

6. Shrek

7. Black Hawk Down

8. Mulholland Drive

9. Amelie

10.The Man Who Wasn't There

Other Possibilities:

11. Iris

12. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

13. Ali

14. Training Day

15. Monster's Ball

Commentary: Not the strongest year for movies, yet I had a hard time getting down to ten from eleven, as I went back and forth on two movies for a while. If there is one designee for an animated movie, then Shrek would easily be a shoo-in. Next I went with Black Hawk Down because it managed a good many nominations including one for Ridley Scott in directing. Mulholland Drive also got a directing nod, so I stuck with my director/picture theory. The last two slots were kind of tricky. While no foreign language film got into the running last year, I feel that with five nominations, that Amelie could have gotten in due to lack of great competition, despite the fact that it was not in English. The last spot was tricky for me. Iris got three acting nods, and won one for Jim Broadbent, however I chose the Coen Bros for a couple of reasons. First, it managed a writing nod, second they love the Coen Bros, and third, if A Serious Man can get a nod, then this much better movie can.