Oscar Noms

by Devil’s Food Cake

An exciting time, is award season. Not everyone follows it, or even really likes it, but there’s something about the glitz and glamour and (somewhat) suspense of an awards show that I find irresistible, something about the presentation of honours for superior film-making that makes me a little girl again – the kind of girl that obsessively watches clips of the show on Youtube and cried when Tilda Swinton won her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

So fo course, when the nominations were announced yesterday, I was thrilled. The most thrilling of the bunch? Kathryn Bigelow’s nomination  for Best Director. In 82 years of nominations and 82 years of awards, the number of women that have been nominated in the Best Director category is shocking. For those of you who’ve not been counting, this number is four. The number of women who’ve won, you ask? Why, that would be… zero.

Now I could rant all day about the travesty that is the Academy’s failure to recognize women directors, but there are more delightful things to discuss at hand and, frankly, I’d rather focus on the good for once than shout myself out about the bad  (I can save that for another article). So I’m going to point out a couple of things about the nominations that were, in a couple of words, kind of freaking awesome.

Firstly, Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)

I think I loved Maggie Gyllenhaal the minute I found out she was the alcoholic party girl in Mona Lisa Smile. Her startling turn as the titular lead in Secretary didn’t hurt either, but though she is undeniably lovely to look at, Maggie Gyllenhaal just has such range as an actress. She was as convincing as the newly sado-masochistic secretary as she was the free-loving, hippie mother in Away We Go or the naive, druggie actress in Paris, Je T’Aime. Though I don’t believe she will win the Best Supporting Actress award she’s been nominated for – that honour will, and should, I think, go to Mo’Nique – it is a pleasure to see her recognized.

Next up, Up.

I loved this movie. Let me repeat that: I loooooooooved this movie. It was beautiful in so many ways and groundbreaking in one or two as well. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean. From start to finish, I was hooked. It was sweet and absorbing and a phenomenal exploration of the human capacity for love. And the cake – there was icing on it! See the little boy in the picture? For the first time in God knows how long, a character in a Disney film was not white. Not because it was pivotal to the story (as, for example, in Aladdin) or because his Asian-ness brought anything on board – Russell was Asian just because. And that, my friends, was a revelation. Maybe this stuff matters to me more because I’m Indian myself and grew up not seeing anything that looked like me onscreen (except, of course, Aladdin), but I know I’m not the only person who cares. In any case, Up won in the Best Animated Film categories at the Golden Globes and the Critic’s Choice Awards, and is the only animated film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars – deservedly so.

Also – Gabourey Sidibe in Precious.

Nominated in a number of categories, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress, Precious has been miraculous. What started as a tiny book has turned out to be a big story about immense strength. Precious has illuminated our screens and turned out to be one of the most incredible films of the year. Gabourey Sidibe’s nomination is thrilling – not only because the first black woman to win an award was merely seven years ago, but also because, despite her tender age and relative inexperience, Sidibe was excellent, breathtaking, even, and that kind of talent is deservedly recognized. I don’t think she’ll win it – everyone has their money on Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side - but, again, I’m glad to see her nominated at the very least.

See the trailer for Precious here or here.

And of course, though I promise not to rant, something must be said for Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker.

So. 82 years. 82 Best Directors. 3 women nominees. And not one winner. Don’t tell me there haven’t been any deserving women – the three women ( Lina Wertmüller for 1976′s Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for 1993′sThe Piano, and Sofia Coppola for 2003′s Lost in Translation) preceding Kathryn Bigelow’s nomination this year had wonderful films. And don’t get me started on the women who have been left out of the category – how Kimberly Peirce (with Boys Don’t Cry) was left out of the Best Director and Best Picture categories, in favour of something like The Cider House Rules will never make any sense to me. But Kathryn Bigelow has done something marvellous with The Hurt Locker. On what is, in Hollywood, a small budget of $15 million, she has made an extraordinary film, about members of an American Explosive Ordnance Disposal team in Iraq. And while a lot of people think the honours will go to James Cameron for Avatar, an growing number believe Bigelow may just get it herself – she did garner the award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures from the Director’s Guild of America. James Cameron may still be the favourite here, but I know who I have my fingers crossed for.

And, of course, there’s so much more to be excited about when the Awards finally roll around.  Who wins what, who wears what and who says what – the Oscars are an exciting show. Will you be watching? What are your hopes/predictions for the night? And more importantly – if I don’t have Sky, can I still watch it? WHERE?