With the 10 best picture nominees this year, there is a renewed focus on the awards not as an art house affair but as a populist spectacle, interested in bringing more mainstream audiences into the fold.

The Oscars, which are set to air on March 7, desperately want to be more mainstream once again.

Yet of all the categories announced, the one that offers the most definitive proof of the ceremony's march back to the middle is the contest for best director. Here is a look at the four strongest candidates and which corner of the industry they represent:

James Cameron. His "Avatar" is a behemoth of entertainment. It is spectacle amplified to an entirely new scale, heralding a new era of special effects and visual wizardry. It is the highest-grossing film of all time.

Katheryn Bigelow. Cameron's ex-wife, the woman behind "The Hurt Locker," is an indie-blockbuster hybrid that used big action to advance a story of major emotions. She proved that an indie film doesn't need to be all that restrained to connect on a deeper level and created perhaps one of the most exciting indie hits of all time.

Jason Reitman. The topical director of the moment, his "Up in the Air" film takes on the recession head-on, featuring a man who travels the country firing people. Somewhat like Bigelow, he took a heady topic and made it engaging and entertaining. Yet he was willing to go dark in a way that only made his work more honest.

Lee Daniels. His "Precious" tears into the plight of the urban poor. He made his movie on his own, scrounging for his own cash until his success on the film festival circuit elicited the attention of those like Oprah Winfrey, who signed on as executive producer. He embraced the do-it-yourself mentality and got the film out into the public discussion.

Much will be made about "Avatar" as the great populist hit. And many of the other nine best picture nominees were indeed shoutouts to the public, pleading with them to stay interested, to treat the Oscars as THEIR awards.

But it's these directing nominees that fascinate me most, the harbingers of a new era in Hollywood, where there is more than one way to catch the eye of the mainstream.

If the Oscars were looking to go more mainstream this year and show to the world they could honor a wider cross-section of the industry's talent, then this is the only category to watch come awards night.

Yes, the 2010 Academy Awards - which will be debated and decided over the coming three weeks - are indeed different. In the Cameron-Bigelow-Reitman-Daniels duel to the death, we see the many shades of modern-day Hollywood. The winner takes all.