On January 25, 2011, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards, including the nominees for the Best Picture  category. The Academy Award for Best Picture is designed to honor the most outstanding feature film released in 2010. The nominees are Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, and Winter's Bone.http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/83/nominees.html

The winner in the Best Picture category for the 82nd annual Academy Awards was the Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker.  Past winners in the Best Picture category also include On The Waterfront, The Godfather, Titanic, and No Country for Old Men.http://www.filmsite.org/bestpics4.html  The 83rd Academy Awards ceremony will take place Sunday, February 27, 2011.  The ceremony will be aired on ABC at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST.http://oscar.go.com/?cid=11_oscars_abc_main_nav

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science first awarded the Oscar for Best Picture in 1928.  The winners that year were Wings for Outstanding Picture and Sunrise for Unique and Artistic Picture. That was the first and only year that the award was divided into these two categories. The producers who have been nominated the most times for this award include Steven Spielberg, with six nominations  (and one win for Schindler's List); Kathleen Kennedy, with six nominations (and no wins); Stanley Kramer, with six nominations (and no wins); Francis Ford Coppola, with five nominations (and one win for The Godfather Part II); and Clint Eastwood, with four nominations (and two wins for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby).

Foreign language films can be nominated in the Best Picture category, and past nominations have been given to films including Grand Illusion (France), Cries and Whispers (Sweden), The Postman (Il Postino) (Italy), Life is Beautiful (Italy), and Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon (Taiwan). Life is Beautiful and Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon both won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film while nominated for Best Picture as well.http://www.filmsite.org/bestpics1.html

• Black Swan, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
• The Fighter, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
• Inception, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
• The Kids Are All Right, Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
• The King's Speech, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
• 127 Hours, Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
• The Social Network, Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• Toy Story 3, Darla K. Anderson, Producer
• True Grit, Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
• Winter's Bone, Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producersc

• Avatar, James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• The Blind Side, Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson, Producers
• District 9, Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
• An Education, Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• The Hurt Locker,  Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro, Producers (winner)
• Inglourious Basterds, Lawrence Bender, Producer
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,  Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
• A Serious Man, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
• Up, Jonas Rivera, Producer
• Up in the Air, Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producershttp://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/82/nominees.html