Oscar nominees do lunch

The annual Oscar nominees' lunch provides a vital opportunity for award hopefuls to meet, greet and subtly scout the competition. Inside a Beverly Hills hotel, the 151 attendees gather for food, booze and photographs. Each has officially come to tell their neighbour how wonderful they are, and what an honour it is to be nominated alongside them, and how anything else would be a bonus and probably won't happen anyway, what with their neighbour being so much better. At the same time these beaming, glad-handing killers are jockeying gently for an advantage, drawn towards the oversized Oscar statue like metal shavings to a magnet. For some, sad to say, this is the closest they will come to the prize they desire above all else. Pole position in the group photo, perhaps fittingly, goes to past winners such as Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman. Natalie Portman, James Franco and Christopher Nolan are so close to Oscar it is all they can do not to reach out and grab him. Jeff Bridges took last year's best actor award and may do so again thanks to his role in True Grit. But first he must shake himself free of Annette Bening, who has cruelly positioned herself on his knee, pinning him to the seat. For the others, meanwhile, Oscar glimmers like a distant mirage. What are the odds on poor Mark Ruffalo, stuck way up in the gods, or hapless Helena Bonham Carter, perched out on the wings? As they were ushered towards the back of the hall, the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Michelle Williams and Geoffrey Rush must surely have felt their dreams of glory fading. They had come as contenders, only to find themselves cast in the role of bit-part players, background artists at what was meant to be their party. The 83rd annual Academy Awards take place in Hollywood on Sunday 27 February. The Coen brothers will fancy their chances with True Grit and are joined in the hunt by the ballet melodrama Black Swan, the Facebook saga The Social Network and Pixar animation Toy Story 3. All, however, may be forced to play second fiddle to The King's Speech. Tom Hooper's acclaimed tale of stuttering George VI leads the charge with 12 nominations, and its star Colin Firth the prohibitive favourite to claim the best actor prize. And yet, in their wisdom, the lunch organisers have opted to stand Firth right at the rear, against the curtain. He needs to start moving. He needs to use his elbows, or climb over some heads. All at once his Oscar might as well be a hundred miles away.