Fan Fare

The Hollywood awards season is shaping up nicely after a week of  critics awards and nominations for top movies and performances from the  Golden Globes organizers and the Screen Actors Guild.

So far , the movies with the biggest momentum behind them seem to be “Up in the Air”, with George Clooney,  harrowing  urban tale “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”,  Quentin Tarantino’s  summer box office hit war fantasy “Inglourious Basterds”,  the much-talked about sci-fi epic  “Avatar”, glittering musical “Nine”,  Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker” and  British coming of age movie “An Education”.

Clooney, Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan, Colin Firth,  newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, Emily Blunt, Helen Mirren and Jeff Bridges are among the names that keep popping up for acting honors.  But which of them are most likely to be in the running for the most coveted honors — the Oscars — when those nominations are announced in February?

Only a few weeks ago, Bullock’s performance in “The Blind Side” looked to be too mainstream for audiences tastes, but after nominations for both Golden Globes and SAG Awards this week, she looks like a lock on a best actress nomination. Blogger Anne Thompson on IndieWire calls her “the big news of the week. … it’s a classic case of a comic actress going serious in a drama.”

Movie critics get a look at the upcoming movies weeks ahead of ordinary folk. And  some of the movies have not yet been released or are in only a handful of theaters in big cities like New York and Los Angeles.

So after all the chat this week, which movies are you most looking forward to seeing  — “Nine”, “Avatar”, the Meryl Streep/Alec Baldwin comedy “It’s Complicated”, “Up in the Air”?

Which movies suddenly getting a whole lot of love will send you rushing out to watch them now, when you might not have bothered before?

And will the likes of  Clooney, Streep and Cruz steal the show  again when the awards are finally decided? Or is it time to make way for up and coming stars?