Did Leo DiCaprio Miss the Inception Oscar Train?

Odds are on Christopher Nolan mind-bender to score an Oscar nod for Best Picture along with The Social Network and various art house fare...but Leo's in the back of the Best Actor pack

By Natalie Finn Nov 15, 2010 11:40 PMTags
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James Franco sawing off his arm in 127 Hours may have cut the Oscar hopes of his fellow heartthrobs in half.

The 32-year-old renaissance man is a 9-to-2 favorite to win the Academy Award for Best Actor in a few months, behind only 3-1 Jesse Eisenberg, presuming The Social Network looks as good to the Academy after the buzz has died down, and 6-5 Brit Colin Firth, who's getting raves for his role as stuttering monarch George VI in The King's Speech, currently a 2-1 fave to be named Best Picture, as well.

Also in the mix is Cristopher Nolan's magnum mind-bender Inception, a 6-1 shot for Best Picture, according to oddsmaker Bodog.com. But a win for star Leonardo DiCaprio, a three-time Oscar nominee, may be only a pipe dream.

Aside from Firth, Eisenberg and Franco, six-time nominee (but only one-time winner) Robert Duvall is an early favorite for the Depression-era indie dramedy Get Low, while Jeff Bridges could find himself getting the recognition he deserves two years in a row if the Coen brothers' remake of True Grit is any good.

But DiCaprio, who starred in both Inception and Shutter Island this year, is way back at 25-1 to win the Best Actor Oscar, despite Inception's decent odds and the fact that both Nolan and Martin Scorsese made it onto Bodog's Best Director list.

Sean Penn in the CIA snoozer Fair Game, Jim Sturgess in the Siberian gulag slog The Way Back, Jim Broadbent in Mike Leigh's Another Year, Ryan Gosling in the NC-17 Blue Valentine, Javier Bardem in the Spanish-language Biutiful and Mark Wahlberg playing a boxer in The Fighter stand between Leo and the top five acting faves this year.

Chilling behind The King's Speech, The Social Network and Inception in the Best Picture race are 127 Hours, Darren Aronofsky's loopy-ballerina thriller Black Swan and True Grit.

Along with the aforementioned art house fare, Toy Story 3, a shoo-in for a Best Animated Feature nod, is a possibility at 18-1, as is the Jake Gyllenhaal-Anne Hathaway romancefest Love and Other Drugs at 25-1.

Nominations for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards will be announced Jan. 25 and the little gold men will be handed out Feb. 27.