Are the Best Picture Nominees Falling Into a Formula?

On Thursday we will publish an exclusive dialogue between two of the internet’s liveliest Oscar trackers, Nathaniel Rogers of The Film Experience and Nick Davis of Nick’s Flick Picks. In addition to dishing out their Best Picture predictions and favorites, they’ll be reading between the lines of the nominations to point out what it says about the Academy’s predilections.

One part of the upcoming exchange that deserves its own spotlight is Nick’s side-by-side comparision of last year’s nominees to this year’s. Last year was the first time in decades that the Academy upped the Best Picture field to ten nominees; looking at this year’s field, NIck has already pointed out a pattern. Remarkably, Nick has found a one-to-one thematic correlation between each of this year’s and last year’s nominees.

To what extent is it pure coincidence and how much of it is conscious (or sub-conscious) effort to recognize particular movie types (as well as their audiences?) How many of these can we expect next year – can the Coens and Pixar extend their streak?