It's possible that two of the 10 Best Picture nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards will open in Salt Lake City theaters Friday -- along with the movies featuring three potential Best Actress nominees.

And nearly every weekend in the rest of 2009 will bring another would-be Oscar contender.

This is how the movie calendar goes: Summer's for blockbusters, fall is for Halloween horror, and the year's final six weeks bring awards-bait prestige pictures hoping to garner the attention of critics and industry bigwigs.

Friday brings two films that launched at the Sundance Film Festival in January and have grown into big Oscar hopefuls: "Precious," Lee Daniels' harrowing drama about an illiterate, abused, pregnant teen (played by Gabourey Sidibe); and "An Education," directed by Lone Scherfig from a Nick Hornby screenplay, about a high-school girl (played by Carey Mulligan) who learns far more outside the classroom when she's romanced by an older man (Peter Sarsgaard).

Sidibe and Mulligan have been pegged as contenders in the Best Actress race. A longshot contender is Sandra Bullock, for her role in "The Blind Side" (also opening Friday) as a Tennessee mom who changes the life of a homeless black teen (Quinton Aaron).

For many fans, though, Friday's movie news is the arrival of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," the continuation of the megapopular vampire romantic drama that has millions of women (and about 20 men) swooning.

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Click here for the full list of holiday movies, what's opening and when.