The Oscar shortlist has been announced. Here they be, along with predictions from Movie Banter's Paul Kerensa (marked PK), or at least what should win, even if it won't. I've gone a bit Brit-heavy, so I'm only lying to myself. Results announced on March 7th...

BEST PICTURE Avatar The Blind Side District 9 An Education The Hurt Locker - PK Inglourious Basterds Precious A Serious Man Up Up in the Air

BEST DIRECTOR James Cameron (Avatar) Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) - PK Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) Lee Daniels (Precious) Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)

BEST ACTOR Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) - PK George Clooney (Up in the Air) Colin Firth (A Single Man) Morgan Freeman (Invictus) Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)

BEST ACTRESS Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) Helen Mirren (The Last Station) Carey Mulligan (An Education) - PK Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Matt Damon (Invictus) Woody Harrelson (The Messenger) Christopher Plummer (The Last Station) Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones) - PK Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Penelope Cruz (Nine) Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart) Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) Mo'Nique (Precious) - PK

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Ajami (Israel) El Secreto de Sus Ojos - The Secret of Their Eyes (Argentina) The Milk of Sorrow (Peru) Un Prophete - A Prophet (France) - PK The White Ribbon (Germany)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) - PK Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman (The Messenger) Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (A Serious Man) Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy (Up)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell (District 9) Nick Hornby (An Education) Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche (In the Loop) - PK Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious) Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air)

BEST ANIMATION Coraline Fantastic Mr Fox The Princess and the Frog The Secret of Kells Up - PK

BEST ORIGINAL SONG Almost There from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman - PK Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman Loin de Paname from Paris 36 by Reinhardt Wagner, Frank Thomas Take It All from Nine by Maury Yeston The Weary Kind (theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Avatar (James Horner) Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat) The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders) Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer) Up (Michael Giacchino) - PK

Edge of Darkness, Daybreakers, Up in the Air, and 44 Inch Chest are under scrutiny from the Banterers this week, together with tangents into scary foreplay, skinning a groundhog, and whether Mel Gibson can still speak English. And of course This Week in Movie History, and Desert Island Flicks covers Mel Gibson's best film.

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Golden Globes, The Book of Eli, The Road, Exam, Nine, Sherlock Holmes, and ways an agent could annoy Colin Salmon all come up for discussion from Jon, Paul and Jen this episode, plus In This Week In Movie History, your emails and tweets, and Desert Island Flicks looks at the best post-apocalyptic movies of all time.

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Happy New Year! It's the Movie Banter review of 2009 - Paul, Jon and Jen go through their best and worst films of 2009, with occasional diversions into a debate on films vs theatre, Paul getting Shaggy and Murdock confused, and more of our interview with Andrew Collins.

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Avatar Yourself A Merry Little Christmas! An epic Christmas special, featuring our very own Nativity acted out for you, dear listener, praise for Avatar, aka, Dances With Smurfs (or is it 'Smurves'?), plus a mammoth discussion of the best Christmas films of all time as voted for by you, the podcastees, and latest reviews of recent releases Nativity! and A Christmas Carol. All that, plus a festive special of the quiz In This Week In Movie History. And Christmas greetings from us all!

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I'm torn about this - the gritty aspects work for me, making it far more "Gladiator in the UK" rather than "Prince of Thieves 2", but the music's a bit odd and the general feel is a bit disjointed. Hopefully another trailer will piece things together better.

This is a far better look at the film than the teaser released earlier this year, coupled with what I'm fairly sure is a bit of the actual score (based on the fact that it sounds like Danny Elfman but I don't recognise it). Have to say this is looking pretty good...

A bumper episode - we cover New Moon (terrible), The Box (weird), and Law Abiding Citizen (more fun than it should be). Paul somehow conjures up the idea of giant mechanical spider porn, Jon turns an intended compliment into something a bit creepy, and Jen gets worked up over vampires, but probably not how you expect. We've also got an interview with journalist and podcasting legend Andrew Collins, This Week in Movie History, and Desert Island Flicks covers "best box movie" because the idea amused us.

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