Women Make Strides in 2010 Oscar Nominations

All of we feminazis are abuzz since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 2010 Oscar nominations. Why were we so pumped?

Two of the 10 nominees for Best Picture are directed by women (The Hurt Locker, An Education), one is co-written by a woman (District 9), and three of the films are about women (Precious, An Education, The Blind Side). There are other noteable breakthroughs—one of the films about women is about an African-American woman, and one of the Best Picture nominees was directed by a gay, African-American man. Both this man, Lee Daniels, and The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow are also up for Directing Oscars, and either one would be a huge upset for a long, long tradition of white dude self-congratulation for such masterpieces as Titanic and Crash. I so wish there was a font that indicated eye-rolling. Adding Avatar to the cadre of Best Picture winners, by the way, would force my eyes to roll entirely out of my skull, in addition to making me want to burn things.

But I have no reason to start lighting fires yet, since the awards ceremony isn’t until March 7. All told, the first year of doubling the number of Best Picture nominees to 10 has allowed for a better, more diverse pool of nominees than usual, and this pleases me as a cinephile and as a feminist.

But as you surely know, the feminist value of these most-revered films of the year doesn’t start and end with female leads and directors. Thus, in the coming weeks, I’ll be posting feminist reviews of all of the Best Picture nominees. That means I have a little homework to do, having not yet seen Precious or A Serious Man.

The Best Picture nominees are:

Avatar

The Blind Side

District 9

An Education

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Saphhire

Up

Up in the Air

A Serious Man

The other awards nominees can be found here.