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On a chilly evening in Los Angeles, it comes down to this: nerds vs. royals, critics vs. moviemakers, maturity vs. youth, tradition vs. iconoclasm.
The 83rd Academy Awards arrive with some races seemingly decided, others hanging in the air.
They come after a season of dramatic shifts, a season in which David Fincher's challenging "The Social Network" racked up an unprecedented string of critics' award victories, and then Tom Hooper's crowd-pleasing "The King's Speech" enjoyed a dominant run with the Hollywood guilds.
Unless "The Fighter" or something else pulls off an upset for the ages, the final envelope opened on Sunday night at the Kodak Theater will contain the name of either Hooper's film, or Fincher's.
It could put the capper on a night in which "The King's Speech" sweeps through the field and takes home, eight, 10 or more of its 12 nominations, or it could mark the startling resurgence of "The Social Network," and prove once again that the Academy has come to agree with the critics much of the time.
At this point, after a battle that started when both films began screening in early September, few would argue that the King has the upper hand and is the likely winner.
But there's still some drama and uncertainty left in this race -- and while last year's battle between "The Hurt Locker" and "Avatar" was painted as a David vs. Goliath scenario, in many ways the "King's Speech"/"Social Network" divide is almost as dramatic.
Fincher is part of a (relatively) young breed of non-traditional directors who came up through independent film, music videos or commercials, and whose early films were critically acclaimed but too tough and divisive for the Academy. (Other members of the group include Darren Aronofsky, nominated for "Black Swan," Christopher Nolan, whose "Inception" has eight nominations; and the Coen Brothers, who broke through with the Best Picture winner "No Country for Old Men" two years ago and are now back with "True Grit.")
Fincher's film, which famously deals with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, is tough and unsentimental, with Aaron Sorkin's machine-gun dialogue playing out against a defiantly untraditional musical score by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and collaborator Atticus Ross.
"The Social Network" is very much a movie of the time -- which is why, its many backers say, it should stand as emblematic of 2010, and why some think it's just too daring (i.e.,
