It would be nice to think of the Academy Awards as an unbiased glorification of the year's best, but it's actually a cutthroat process involving multi-million dollar campaigns for a lot more than just bragging rights. Take a movie like The Reader. I paid to see it in theaters, after it was nominated for Best Picture. The nomination didn't alter my opinion of the movie once I saw it, but it turned it from a movie I'd watch on Netflix at some point to something I had to see before the Oscars aired. Because of this, there's a lot at stake for lower publicity efforts like the wonderful Winter's Bone or the very good Get Low. But then again, sometimes it is just about bragging rights and recognition from your peers.

According to The New York Post, Justin Timberlake has supposedly reached out to award season veterans Tom Hanks and Kevin Spacey for advice on how to handle campaigning for an Oscar nomination. The musician and blossoming actor has a real chance to get recognized for his turn in The Social Network playing Napster co-founder and former Facebook executive Sean Parker. In addition, he's also reportedly been attending plenty of screenings and making himself noticed at various pre-Oscar functions.

Will he get nominated? Well, it's hard to say. It appears as if Christian Bale (The Fighter) and Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech) are more than likely in, which would leave three available spots for Timberlake and the likes of Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), John Hawkes (Winter's Bone), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are Alright), Sam Rockwell (Conviction) and Bill Murray (Get Low). We'll see how it all shakes out.

For a full breakdown of possible Oscar nominations, head over to Katey Rich's Oscar Eye here.