Cynthia Cheng Mintz

As predicted films like The King’s Speech, Black Swan and The Social Network are all nominees at this year’s Academy Awards.  Also on the Best Picture list include True Grit, Inception as well as the animated Toy Story 3 (while this movie probably will not win the Best Picture category, it is pretty much guaranteed an award for Best Animated Feature).  On the performers’ front, the list is not shocking either.  Colin Firth and Jesse Eisenberg are both up for actor in a leading role and Natalie Portman is one of the five nominees for actress.  Director nominees include David Fincher (The Social Network), Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) and Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan).

But who will win this year?  While the winners aren’t going to be announced for another month, it seems that except for the lead actress category, the two films against each other are The Social Network and The King’s Speech. This might really be a Millennial/Gen X vs Boomer/Pre-Boomer year.  To generalize, the younger set will likely prefer the former (unless they’re true history buffs) while older people, the latter.  If the King’s Speech wins, then it prooves that Hollywood is still run by a bunch of old people, while if The Social Network prevails, then it signifies a major shift and that the millennial generation has truly come of age.  Of course, we could all be surprised with say, Toy Story 3 taking the statue.  That, of course, would mean that nostalgia rules and we are all kids inside.

The Academy Awards air on Sunday, February 27.  For a complete list of nominees, please visit the official Oscar page.

Image courtesy of Stacie Stauff Smith Photography/Shutterstock