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Us Weekend Guide: The Hurt Locker, Avatar Vie for Top Oscar Honors

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Avatar and The Hurt Locker are set to duke it out for Best Picture honors at Sunday's Academy Awards in one of the most hotly contested showdowns for this year's trophy.

Earning $2 billion in the months since its Dec. 2009 release, James Cameron's 3-D CGI spectacle Avatar has broken box office records to become the most successful (and most expensive!) film to date. It's closest competition, The Hurt Locker, is just the opposite: a low-budget war indie starring Jeremy Renner as an Iraq soldier.

Prior to the official ceremony's 8:30 p.m./ET kick-off, TV icon Barbara Walters will sit down with nominees Sandra Bullock and Mo'Nique for her annual Oscar special (ABC, 7 p.m.). Topics on the agenda for Walters' last show after a 30-year-run include Mo'Nique's frank discussion of her open marriage to actor Sidney Hicks.

Related: Download a printable Oscar scorecard to keep handy during Sunday's show.

If red carpets aren't your thing, head to the theater this weekend for the rich big screen retelling of Alice in Wonderland.

Starring Anne Hathaway and Johnny Depp, the 3-D, candy-colored flick earns raves from Us critic Thelma Adams. Tim Burton's version ages Alice (Mia Wasikowska) to her late teens and sends her down a bunny hole into an eccentric dreamscape. However, Adams cautions that the trippy tale may divide audiences. "Burton's version remains a children's story, though some may find it too over-the-top and idiosyncratic," says Adams.

For more must-see weekend moments, check out Us' Movies, TV and Music channel now!

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