AS THE 2009 movie season wraps up, two major award shows, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, earlier this month announced nominations for the “best of the best.” And while they offer an obviously strong indication of what the Oscar nominations will be, the nominations (and ultimate winners) don’t always match. With no strong leader of the pack as in previous years, finally it’s a wide open race. There are no “Titanics” or “Slumdog Millionaires” this year. And to mix things up, the Oscars have decided to nominate 10 films in the Best Picture category. So let’s hope for some surprises and upsets, but welldeserved, nonetheless.

The Globes is a wider field that includes 10 nominations in the categories for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress, each category receiving five nominations for a Musical/Comedy and five for Drama. The Supporting Actor and Actress categories (among others such as Director, Screenplay, Score and Song) receive only five nominations, combining Musical/Comedy and Drama. With the Globes’ celebratory feel, many of the “less serious” films and performances will show up to simply celebrate in their last hoorah before things get Oscar-serious.

Nominated by a portion of their peers (and later voted on by the entire membership), the Screen Actors Guild (“SAG”) nominations do not categorize by genre, nominating five in each acting category. All actors are created equal regardless, for the most part, of what marketing machine is behind the actor up for consideration. SAG tends to honor the less-hyped performances that might get overshadowed by expensive campaigns that can lead to an Oscar nomination. With actors voting for actors and attending screenings at which the actor under consideration appears, the SAG nominating committee wants to recognize actors for their craft. An actor’s work deemed more of an ensemble performance might get overlooked elsewhere, but not with SAG. (This year SAG nominated

The Hurt Locker’s” Jeremy Renner.)

Early Oscar predictions include:

Picture: Globe-nominated dramas “Avatar,” “The Hurt Locker,”

Inglourious Basterds,” “Precious,” “Up in the Air” and for the musical/ comedy, “Nine,” are locks. The other four slots are up for grabs and may include “The Blind Side,” “The Hangover,” “Julie & Julia,”

The Young Victoria,” “A Single Man, “Up” and “District 9.” The last time the Oscars nominated ten films was 70 years ago. I’m out of practice on this one.

Actor: Jeff Bridges (“Crazy Heart”), George Clooney (“Up in the Air”), Colin Firth (“A Single Man”), Morgan Freeman (“Invictus”) and the fifth nomination could go to Matt Damon (“The Informant!) or Daniel Day Lewis (“Nine.”)

Actress: Emily Blunt (“The Young Victoria”), Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”), Helen Mirren (“The Last Station”), Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) and Meryl Streep (“Julie & Julia”). Gabourey Sidibe (“Precious”) or Marion Cotillard (“Nine”) could squeeze one of the others out.

Nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards will be announced on February 2, 2010.