Envelope’s Buzzmeter: Five Oscar favorites for best picture

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Five films now seem like locks to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars, according to the pundits at The Envelope’s Buzzmeter. All 10 gurus predict ‘Black Swan,’ ‘The Fighter,’ ‘Inception,’ ‘The King’s Speech’ and ‘The Social Network’ will make the list when Oscar contenders are unveiled on Jan. 25.

Three other flicks have nine of 10 pundits forecasting a best-picture bid: ‘Toy Story 3,’ ‘True Grit’ and ‘The Kids Are All Right.’ Seven prognosticators back ‘Winter’s Bone’; six opt for ‘The Town’ and ‘127 Hours.’

There has been lots of shifting of opinion in the acting races. Everybody’s ditched poor Miranda Richardson (‘Made in Dagenham’) in the supporting-actress contest while many (eight, in fact) have piled onto Hailee Steinfeld‘s (‘True Grit’) bandwagon. I’ve been getting lots of grief for being the lone soldier for Barbara Hershey (‘Black Swan’), but I think there’s room for more than one mean momma in this race. Take that, Melissa Leo (‘The Fighter’)!

-- Tom O’Neil