The Sixth Sense got all of the attention for its surprise ending. But after a decade, the real surprise ending might be that in a year that brought some truly inventive movies by a new generation of filmmakers, the Best Picture, American Beauty, is in fact still the best picture.

Five movies about just two topics — Elizabethan England and World War II — could not have been more different from each other. As it turned out, the wrong movie with the queen won, and the wrong movie about World War II has been portrayed as the one that got shafted.

Perhaps the biggest surprise about Titanic’s Best Picture win is that it didn’t sink Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet into long, boring careers playing the same poorly written roles that made $1.8 billion. Now, if only a few others had made such wise career choices that year.

Maybe Avatar isn’t a lock, after all. Two curious developments over the weekend have at least cast doubt on the certainty of an Avatar win for Best Picture. First, the Screen Actors Guild gave its ensemble award to Inglourious Basterds.Then the Producers Guild gave its top award to The Hurt Locker.