By Mary Montserrat-Howlett

HOLLYWOOD (Hollywood Today/RushPRnews) 02/2209-The big night has finally arrived and only hours remain until we find out the year’s best and long awaited winners. Join RushPRnews as we give you a taste of the event as it unfolds, and we discover who will win Best Picture at the 2009 Academy Awards.

Here is a recap of this year’s Best Picture nominees:

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
“Benjamin Button” has been a real show stopper, with an astounding 13 nominations this year. Going from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short-story about a man who ages in reverse to a full-length feature film starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, “The Curious Case” was a high budget film that can afford all the nominations money can buy. A story of love, life and death told through memories and flashbacks- this film will be the one other’s will compete against.

Frost/Nixon
Directed by Ron Howard, the film depicts the infamous interview between TV personality David Frost and the disgraced President Nixon after three years of silence. Revealing the details of the Watergate scandal in their charged battle of wits, the film reveals the tension that has changed the nature of interviews for good.

Milk
Not only nominated for Best Film, but also up for a Best Actor award for Sean Penn in his portrayal of Harvey Milk- one of America’s most influential gay activists- this wonderful biopic has certainly received the recognition it deserves. Harvey moves to California with his lover and becomes the first openly gay man in the United States to win an election for public office. Penn breaks new grounds in what many are calling the performance of his lifetime; a performance made possible by the brilliance of all the cast members and of course through the beautiful direction of Gus Van Sant.

The Reader
Kate Winslet, is also a front-runner for Best Actress, for her role as a Nazi guard in “The Reader”- a film based on the award-winning novel by Bernard Schlink. An unusual tale of the love between a German teenager who falls ill and the woman twice his age who helps him. Their mysterious reconnection later on in life leads to a new found knowledge of his people and history.

Slumdog Millionaire
There are many ways to depict the message of chance and destiny and Slumdog Millionaire’s proposition that “love conquers all” and “whatever is meant to be will be” is one of those ways. A rags to riches story, about a poor eighteen-year-old boy from the slums of Mumbai who finds himself on the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and must overcome the struggles of his past life and what lies ahead.