Oscar Buzz: Best Picture Oscar 2010 Predictions Part 1

The unofficial start of Academy Awards season kicks off after the Toronto Film festival. While a couple early contenders like Christoph Waltz ('Inglourious Basterds') and Meryl Streep ('Julie and Julia') have already made their case for prime seating at L.A.'s Kodak Theater come March 7, 2010, as per tradition, several others emerged up north.

Films like "A Serious Man," "Precious" and "Up in the Air" could be sure bets for 3 of the 10 slots for Best Picture. There are also the powerhouses to come: 'Lovely Bones,' 'Avatar' and 'Nine.' Here are some of the early Best Picture predictions:

The Lovely Bones
Visionary  director Peter Jackson teams with longtime collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens to adapt author Alice Sebold's best-selling novel concerning a murdered young girl who watches from heaven as her family attempts to cope with their devastating loss, and tracks her killer as he stealthily covers his tracks and prepares to claim his next victim. Stars Oscar-nominated Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Saoirse Ronan

A Serious Man
Filmmaking duo Joel and Ethan Coen write, produce, and direct this period black comedy set in 1967 concerning a Midwestern physics professor whose staid and stable life slowly begins to unravel after his wife announces that she's leaving him. As if the failure of his longtime marriage wasn't enough for Larry Gopnik (Tony-nominated Michael Stuhlbarg) to contend with, now his socially inept brother refuses to move out of the house as well. Stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Adam Arkin, Aaron Wolf.

Precious
Monster's Ball producer Lee Daniels follows up his 2005 directorial debut, Shadowboxer, with this adaptation of author Sapphire's best-selling novel about an overweight, illiterate African-American teen from Harlem who discovers an alternate path in life after she begins attending a new school. Clareece "Precious" Jones is only a teenager, yet she's about to give birth to her second child. Unable to read or write, Clareece shows little prospect for the future until discovering that she has been accepted into an alternative school. There, with a little help from a sympathetic teacher (Paula Patton) and a kindly nurse (Lenny Kravitiz), the young girl receives something that most teens never get -- a chance to start over. Mo'nique co-stars in an inspirational drama featuring the debut performance of screen newcomer Gabourey "Gabbie" Sidibe.

Up
A feisty septuagenarian teams with a fearless wilderness ranger to do battle with a vicious band of beasts and villains in this computer-animated adventure scripted by Pixar veteran Bob Peterson and co-directed by Peterson and Monsters, Inc. director Peter Docter.

Avatar
A paraplegic ex-marine war veteran is unwillingly sent to establish a human settlement on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet's indigenous Na'vi race in this ambitious digital 3-D sci-fi epic from Academy Award-winning Titanic director James Cameron. The film, which marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's Titanic, will be shot on the proprietary FUSION digital 3-D cameras developed by Cameron in collaboration with Vince Pace, and will offer a groundbreaking mix of live-action dramatic performances and computer-generated effects. Australian actor Sam Worthington stars as the reluctant human settler, Jake Sully, with actress Zoe Saldana signing on to portray the local woman who enters into a romantic affair with the hero. Joel Moore, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and Michelle Rodriguez round out the cast.

Stay tuned for more Best Picture Oscar 2010 Predictions