Oscars: two for Kathryn, none for Food Inc.

Since the Oscars are the hottest topic at this moment and thus there are plenty of opinions out there, I’ll try to keep mine short…
I was curious at first if Food, Inc. will win. According to the Time it was one of the favorites, but I wondered if Hollywood will cast its vote against corporate America in such an obvious way. It did not. And I knew it as soon as “Logorama” won the short for animated film. A French production with Ronald McDonald playing the bad guy was as far as the Oscars anti-corporatist message went. Another surprise for the short section was the documentary; the GM short expected the support from the Hollywood unions. However, the support and Oscar went for a touching story about hope and determination from Zimbabwe. If they can, so do we! “Precious” won the expected supporting role actress and the adapted screenplay (I added “Push” to my reading list).
I was a little bit disappointed when “A single man” was not even nominated for costumes. Would’ve been a nice move for fancy Victorian or alien outfits to be gone. Great visuals; great design and you cannot but love Colin Firth. But it lacks the book’s depth.
Colin Firth may deserve an Oscar for his performance, but after Sean Penn’s Milk got it last year, to be honest he did not stand chance. So, the dude, i.e. Jeff Bridges as a country singer with drinking problems, got it. And I do not know if it is me, but the top Oscars celebrated the American Way more than anything else. Brave American soldiers in Iraq beats gorgeous blue people for both best director and best movie [1]. America’s sweetheart as inspiring wife, mom and benefactor beats classy actress as former expat bringing French cuisine back home. But as confessed Meryl Streep fan I cannot claim to be as impartial as the judges…



[1] Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win the Oscar as a filmmaker. I avoided American war related movies lately –let’s say I seen too many during a short period of time and I lost the interest –so I did not see the movie. Thus I cannot comment on its artistic value, but I do not think that I am totally wrong to assume the decision was also politics. And no offense, since the minority guy won the presidency we had to get at least the Oscar first.