The buzz floating around social networking sites is “The Artist” has a very good chance of winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

Tricia Jenkins, assistant professor of film-television-digital media, said her money is on “The Artist” to win Best Picture. She also predicted that Martin Scorsese would win the award for

Best Director this year, because of the critical buzz his film, “Hugo,” has received.

Films nominated for Best Picture this year are “War Horse,” “The Artist,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Moneyball,” “The Descendants,” “The Tree of Life,” “The Help,” “Hugo” and “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.”

Interestingly, Harry Potter fans have indicated their disgust for the final film not being among those chosen to be a nominee for Best Picture. 

Popular opinion on the social media-networking site Twitter is that “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” is just as deserving a nomination as “Hugo”.

Daniel Radcliffe, the British actor who portrayed Harry Potter in all eight films, also had a few choice words on the subject, which he conveyed in an interview for the British entertainment magazine “Radio Times.”

“I don’t think the Oscars like commercial films or kids’ films, unless they’re directed by Martin Scorsese. I was watching ‘Hugo’ the other day and going, ‘Why is this nominated and we’re not?’ I was slightly miffed,” Radcliffe said. “There’s a certain amount of snobbery. It’s kind of disheartening. I never thought I’d care. But it would’ve been nice to have some recognition, just for the hours put in.”

I suspect Radcliffe would have liked to have used stronger language, but he is clearly too much of a gentleman to lower himself to that level.

I would have liked to see “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” win Best Picture. The cast has worked on the eight-film franchise for ten years.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” took home Best Picture in 2003. I saw this win as one that could be applied to the entire trilogy. I would have felt the same way about the last Harry Potter film if it had been at least nominated for the award.

Winning films of the coveted award includes “Wings,” (1927) “Gone with the Wind,” (1939) “All the King’s Men,” (1949) “Gigi,” (1958) “The Sting,” (1973) “Out of Africa,” (1985) “Schindler’s List” (1993) and most recently “The King’s Speech” (2010).

I personally own all but one of the films that won Best Picture. The only one missing from my collection is the 1933 classic “Cavalcade.”

I can see why a lot of the films won the award for Best Picture. A case in point is the 2005 winner, “Crash.” “Crash” not only had an excellent script but also a fabulous cast and crew that believed in what they were creating.

Then you have such films as “Shakespeare in Love” (1998). I honestly can’t see why this film was nominated, never mind actually winning the award. There were films nominated in 1998 that were significantly better. “Elizabeth,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Thin Red Line” were all nominated and were significantly better than “Shakespeare in Love.”

“Shakespeare in Love” winning Best Picture seemed to be more of a popularity vote,” Jenkins said.  “The acting was OK, but it wasn’t stellar.”

“‘Shakespeare in Love’ went up against ‘Saving Private Ryan,’” Jenkins said. “Especially since ‘Saving Private Ryan’ did some amazing things with editing and the way it kind of reinvented the war film.”

This suggests the best film isn’t always the one that wins.

Shain E. Thomas is a senior film-television-digital media major from Scotland.