Why did the Academy decide to reinstate the 10-film field for Best Picture in 2010? Because the year before, The Dark Knight wasn’t voted into the top five. At the time the second biggest dollar earner in movie history (now passed by Avatar), Christopher Nolan’s saturnine fantasy was a film that kids and critics alike appreciated, less as a live-action comic book than as a triangular battle of stern Good, giggling Evil and two faces in between. The Academy members didn’t go bats for this Batman; instead, they filled out their Best Picture cards with their favorite fallen President (Frost/Nixon), a Nazi warden (The Reader), a civil rights martyr (Milk), an old guy who gets younger (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and the eventual winner, Slumdog Millionaire. Except for a Heath Ledger memorial citation (Best Supporting Actor), The Dark Knight was ignored in all major award categories, earning only doorstop prizes like Best Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.
