Oscar Nods are Out, Russell from 'Up' Our Only Hope

Of course, James Cameron's Avatar leads the pack, but I'm hoping his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow wins the Best Director statuette for The Hurt Locker instead. Her chances are pretty good since she recently won the equivalent award from the Directors Guild of America, which has historically determined the winner of the Oscar.

Plus, I am the last person on earth who has yet to see Avatar (I do not apologize for having no desire to see this film), but I thought The Hurt Locker was excellent and am glad to see a female amongst the director nominees this year. Blue people vs. bad-ass bomb squads? No contest.

Sadly, I have to report that there are no Asian American Oscar nominees this year. There aren't even any movies from Asia nominated for Best Foreign Film. We are going to have to live vicariously through Pixar's Up and its pudgy animated hero Russell, nominated for Best Picture, Animated Feature Film, Music (Original Score), Sound Editing, and Writing (Original Screenplay).

Hey, buck up. At least it's not Mulan. Also, it's been a stellar year for Lee Daniels' Precious and his lead actresses Gabourey Sibide and Mo'nique. District 9 didn't pull any punches about institutional racism and is a nice counterbalance to Avatar's "saving the natives" narrative. Or so I've heard.

Best Picture Nominees

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

The Academy Awards air Sunday, March 7 at 8pm (PST) on ABC.

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Yoli wrote 2 years 14 weeks ago

re: Oscar Nods are Out, Russell from 'Up' Our Only Hope

I hope she wins for Hurt Locker, I don't think I can stand another "King of the World" speech. It is sad that Up is the only hope. But that is all minorities are in Hollywood, a stereotype.

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Sylvie Kim

Sylvie Kim is a contributing editor at Hyphen. She previously served as Hyphen's blog coeditor with erin Khue Ninh, film editor, and blog columnist.

She writes about gender, race, class and privilege in pop culture and media (fun fun fun!) at www.sylvie-kim.com and at SF Weekly's The Exhibitionist blog. Her work has also appeared on Racialicious and Salon.

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