Now it begins. 'The Social Network,' the heavily promoted, critically acclaimed movie about the founding of Facebook, has been seen for weeks as the film to beat for best picture at the 2011 Academy Awards. But its less than spectacular box office performance in its opening weekend has shifted the playing field -- upon which there may now be a brawl. With the movie suddenly not looking quite as bulletproof as many thought it was, a range of other best picture possibilities -- perhaps even the animated 'Toy Story 3' -- now have more room to maneuver. Oscar handicappers at websites like TheWrap.com and Incontention.com have been pairing 'The Social Network,' directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, as a front-runner with 'The King's Speech,' a classic British period drama that is directed by Tom Hooper, stars Colin Firth and will be released Nov. 26 by the Weinstein Co. But some unexpected players, lured by the relative ease of getting one of 10 best picture nominations in a field that was widened from five last year -- as well as by the opportunity created when 'The Social Network' failed to overwhelm at the box office -- are getting ready to change the campaign dynamic. Most surprisingly, perhaps, the Walt Disney Co. has decided to take a deep breath and push Pixar's 'Toy Story 3' with all of its might. An animated film has never won the top prize -- only two, 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Up,' have ever been nominated -- and Disney, in a decision that went all the way to Robert A. Iger, the media giant's chief executive, has decided that 'Toy Story 3' should finally be the one. Aside from rapturous reviews and $1.1 billion in global ticket sales, 'Toy Story 3' has the 'it's overdue' argument going for it. Pixar, which Disney bought in 2006, has delivered an unprecedented 11 commercial and critical hits in a row. The strategy has worked before. The best picture triumph in 2001 for 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' was seen as the Academy's making up for overlooking the first two 'Rings' installments. Overall, Disney is readying one of the most ambitious -- and expensive -- Oscar onslaughts in its recent history, pushing 'Alice in Wonderland'; the forthcoming 'TRON: Legacy'; a new animated entry, 'Tangled'; and 'Secretariat,' which stars Diane Lane, in various categories. 'Is Diane Lane this year's Sandra Bullock?' Rich Ross, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said in an interview last month about his broader operating plans. 'I don't know. She could be.' Last year James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster 'Avatar,' released in mid-December, turned the awards cycle into a race between Cameron's pop culture spectacle, with its huge box office success, and the indie war drama 'The Hurt Locker.' That film, directed by Cameron's former wife, Kathryn Bigelow, ultimately prevailed, though it was seen by far fewer viewers. This time around, the film industry's best-regarded live-action blockbuster appears to be 'Inception,' directed by Chris Nolan. Because it was released by Warner in July, however, it cannot hold the conversation the way a surprise late entry in the race can. A more serious scramble may occur among a clutch of yet-to-be-released pictures that are heavily dependent on their performers and so will be vying for attention among the members of the academy's powerful actors branch, its biggest voting bloc. Those films include 'Black Swan,' with Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Winona Ryder; '127 Hours,' with James Franco; 'The Fighter,' with Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale; 'True Grit,' with Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon; and 'How Do You Know,' with Jack Nicholson, Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson. Largely missing from the fray this year is an older generation of filmmakers who have often dominated the conversation. Clint Eastwood's 'Hereafter,' Ridley Scott's 'Robin Hood' and Martin Scorsese's 'Shutter Island' all qualify for awards this year, but mixed reviews or a middling response at the box office appear to have edged the three directors, each of whom has directed a best picture in the past, away from the action. Similarly, Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg and Cameron are on the sidelines. In their place, a slightly younger group of directors -- Darren Aronofsky with 'Black Swan'; Joel and Ethan Coen with 'True Grit'; David O. Russell with 'The Fighter'; Ben Affleck with 'The Town'; and, of course, Fincher -- in coming weeks will be battling for the limelight. None of them will fight harder than Fincher. Like Jason Reitman with 'Up in the Air,' which hit the festival circuit in September of last year and was well received but ultimately won no Oscars, Fincher will be facing a test of endurance against films that will not be widely seen for many weeks, like 'King's Speech.' 'It's burning fuel really fast,' Kristopher Tapley, the owner and editor of Incontention.com, said of 'The Social Network.' Tapley noted that the film, which opened in nearly 3,000 theaters, was powered by the kind of media attention that is more often peppered across the long months of an awards campaign. 'The reviews for 'The Social Network' were sensational, some of the best I've ever seen,' said David Gross, who operates the website Moviereviewintelligence.com. 'But immediately I was struck by how the conversation turned to whether the box office was good enough,' he added of a debate that sounded among Oscar watchers this week. 'The Social Network' was No.1 but sold just $22.4 million in North America. Still, attention to 'The Social Network' is unlikely to flag, given the track record of its scrappy promotional team, which includes Terry Press, who ran campaigns for films like 'Dreamgirls' for DreamWorks; Emily Bear, who previously worked at Miramax; and Cynthia Swartz, a Weinstein veteran who, as a partner at the publicity firm 42West, is orchestrating the 'Social Network' awards push. And questions about the authenticity of the film's portrayal of Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, played in the movie by Jesse Eisenberg, can only help Fincher hold the stage. This week, Stephen Ujlaki, the dean of the Loyola Marymount school of film and television, said he was laying plans for a seminar on truth in nonfiction film, built around 'The Social Network,' with hoped-for participation by academy members like the screenwriter Nicholas Kazan. 'It's supposedly about real people in real situations,' said Ujlaki, who is tantalized by negativity among some viewers. 'My 18-year-old thought it was wildly inaccurate.' For an Oscar contender, that kind of controversy could be a good thing. 