Fan Fare

After months of watching movies, listening to punditry and seeing critics’ picks, the Oscar race has rounded the final corner and is in the home stretch. Nomination ballots are due at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this week, and the world’s top film awards will be given out on Sunday, Feb. 22, in Hollywood.

Most Oscar watchers favor ”Slumdog Millionaire” to take the best motion picture award and its director Danny Boyle to win the directing trophy. Danny gives it the thumbs up. After all, ”Slumdog” has scooped up nearly every other award in sight this Oscar season, and it is clearly a crowd pleaser with an overall U.S. box office slowly inching upward to the $100 milion mark.

But is it really the best movie? Does it have the artistry and cinematic appeal of rivals “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Frost/Nixon”? Can it match the hope and inspiration of gay themed “Milk” with Sean Penn in an award-winning performance? Is it missing the weightiness of Holocaust-era drama “The Reader” led by star Kate Winslet?

Will the popular appeal and critical success of “Slumdog,” the rags-to-riches tale of an Indian boy competing for love and money on a TV game show, be enough to sway Academy Award voters. Now may be your last chance to weigh-in here. How would you vote?