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Hollywood Bestows 2010 Academy Awards

   VOA News 07 March 2010

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

   Oscar  nominees  are  seen  on  stage at the start of the 82nd Academy
   Awards Sunday, March 7, 2010, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.

   The 82nd annual Academy Awards ceremony is underway in Hollywood, with
   the  movie industry's biggest stars gathered together to recognize the
   year's top films and filmmakers.
   The  science fiction epic Avatar and the critically acclaimed Iraq war
   drama  The  Hurt  Locker  top  the  list of contenders with nine Oscar
   nominations each.
   Those  include  best  picture  and  best director for James Cameron of
   Avatar,  the  highest grossing film of all time, and best director for
   Kathryn Bigelow of The Hurt Locker.
   Bigelow, who is Cameron's ex-wife, is the odds-on favorite to win Best
   Director  after  receiving a series of awards seen as early indicators
   to  Oscar  success.  To date, no woman ever has received Best Director
   Academy Award.
   A  total  of  10  films  are  nominated  for  best  picture hits year,
   including  the  World  War  Two revenge saga Inglourious Basterds, the
   science-fiction  thriller  District 9, the Harlem-set Precious and the
   recession-era drama for Up in the Air.
   Other  contenders  are  the football drama The Blind Side, the British
   teen  tale  An Education, the Jewish domestic chronicle A Serious Man,
   and the animated adventure Up.
   In  the best acting categories veteran actor Jeff Bridges earned a nod
   for  his  performance  as a downtrodden country singer in Crazy Heart,
   while  Sandra  Bullock leads the pack for best actress for her role as
   an adoptive mother in The Blind Side.
   Christoph  Waltz  and  actress  Mo'Nique  are both favored in the best
   supporting  actor  categories.  Waltz played a cunning Nazi officer in
   Inglorious  Basterds,  while  Mo'Nique  was given a nomination for her
   role as an abusive mother in the drama Precious.
   Nominations  the  foreign  language  category include the Israeli-Arab
   film  Ajami, which depicts life in a mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood in
   the Mediterranean city of Jaffa.
   Other  nominees  include  The  Milk of Sorrow, set in the aftermath of
   Peru's violent and former repressive regime, the bleak black and white
   German  murder mystery The White Ribbon, the Argentine crime drama The
   Secret in their Eyes, and France's A Prophet.

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