Nine 'Avatar' Oscar Nominations Fall Short Of The 14 For 'Titanic,' But What Does That Mean?

In 1997, James Cameron made Hollywood history when his doomed love story "Titanic" scored a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations; the 1950 film "All About Eve" also nabbed that many. Eleven of the 14 nominations were winners for the famously sunken ship, tying with "Ben-Hur" (and later "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King") for the most Oscars won for a single film.

Now, Cameron is making history again. His "Avatar" has already shattered the all-time box office records held by "Titanic" for top-grossing worldwide release and top-grossing international release. Only one record remains standing -- all-time top-grossing domestic release -- and experts believe that could fall as soon as tomorrow, with "Avatar"'s $595 million total inching ever-closer to the $600.8 million held by "Titanic." We learned with this morning's 2010 Oscar nominations announcement that "Avatar" won't be breaking any Academy records, but let's consider for a moment Cameron's two box office smashes and how they measure up as Oscar contenders.

The "Titanic" nominations are as follows: Best Art Direction (won), Best Cinematography (won), Best Costume Design (won), Best Director (won), Best Sound Effects Editing (won), Best Visual Effects (won), Best Film Editing (won), Best Music-Score (won), Best Music-Song (won), Best Picture (won), Best Sound (won), Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Makeup.

And "Avatar" has these: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Directing, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects.

"Avatar" unsurprisingly picked up zero performance nominations. While the Academy certainly showed some more range this year in naming the likes of "District 9" and "Up" as Best Picture nominees, it's clear that they're not ready to accept a computer-generated performance as something award-worthy. "Titanic" also edged out "Avatar" for Best Song. Leona Lewis drew some comparisons to Celine Dion when the song was first announced, but Dion nabbed not only the Best Song Oscar but also four Grammys -- including Song of the Year and Record of the Year -- for "My Heart Will Go On."

Expect "Avatar" to own in the technical categories. Best Visual Effects certainly, but Best Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Film Editing, Art Direction and Cinematography are all strong contenders. Best Picture is as well, given the outstanding box office success of the sci-fi epic. Cameron likely won't nab Best Director however, as many observers believe that "The Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow has that category locked up.

What all of this means is that, despite the success of "Avatar," it likely won't have the sweeping win that "Titanic" did for its own Oscar showing. Are there any locks? Best Visual Effects, no question. Some might argue for others; I'll go as far as saying that "Avatar" will win in several of those technical categories, but maybe not all of them. Best Picture is also a strong possibility, though the Academy could easily go another way and honor Bigelow with the show's two top awards for her work on "Locker." Ultimately, my guess is that 4 or 5 of the 9 "Avatar" nominations will get marked off as Ws.

What are your predictions for "Avatar" at the Academy Awards?

Tags avatar, james cameron, titanic