Will “The #Social Network” Get an #Oscar? Most Critics Say Yes

You cannot know for sure whether a movie will get an Oscar before it happens, but you can make an educated guess by looking at the year’s top movie lists from influential film critics’ associations. And this year, most of them point to director David Fincher’s The Social Network, which depicts the early days of Facebook, as the top candidate.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named The Social Network as best picture, also awarding the film honors for best screenplay, director and music (the latter two awards were a tie). The New York Film Critics Online gave The Social Network prizes for best picture, director and screenplay.
The Boston Society of Film Critics was also on board, giving Fincher’s movie awards for best film, direction, screenplay, score, and actor (Jesse Eisenberg). And finally, the American Film Institute placed it among the top 10 movies of the year.


That’s a lot of prizes for one movie, and all of them hold water. For comparison, last () year two of these critics’ associations named Hurt Locker (the third one named Avatar, but also included Hurt Locker in their best movies of the year list) as the best picture before it went on to win the Academy Award for best picture.
Of course, all these awards are far from a guarantee that The Social Network will indeed win an Academy Award come February 27, 2011, when the awards will be presented at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The odds, however, are heavily in its favor.