Oscar Goes Gaga For Green

 It's time for the Oscar perp walk, and in the Best Picture and Documentary category, it's all about show me the Green, in more ways than one.
Equality Green recommends bright green cumberbunds for your view party, or if on a budget, sipping on a 2 for 1 retro-but-so-chic Grasshopper beverage. Recycle the swizzle sticks, please. Or, bring your Avatar along as a cheap eco-date. They generally do not leave a carbon footprint.
Film and DVD get the Green message out to millions, if not billions, so we commend the Academy for nominating these films.
And the Oscar goes to...?

Source: Treehugger.com
Yesterday the Academy Awards announced the nominees for the big Hollywood Oscar extravaganza on March 7. Of course, Avatar is among the ten candidates in the Best Motion Picture of the Year category, tying with the Iraqi drama, The Hurt Locker, for highest number of nominations. As a frontrunner, the record-breaking blockbuster of all-time is getting out its "controversial" environmental message, and the sci-fi epic stands a good chance of taking the prize--not just the box office top spot (for the 7 week in a row, and counting). In the Best Documentary Feature listing there are more worthy eco-contenders, including Food, Inc. and The Cove, which recently took the Critics Choice award. Here are the finalists:

• "The Cove" (Roadside Attractions), An Oceanic Preservation Society Production, Jim Clark and Fisher Stevens, Producers. An expose of the brutal dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan, through a covert mission, using hidden cameras in barred areas. Also reveals toxic levels of mercury in mislabeled dolphin meat.

• "Food, Inc." (Magnolia Pictures), A Robert Kenner Films Production, Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein. An expose of the agri-industrial food chain and the dangers of hidden ingredients and the corporate practices...


...of the 15 semi-finalists, only one other eco-film didn't make the cut, "Garbage Dreams," Mai Iskander, director (Iskander Films, Inc.), a deep look at the lives of Egyptian trash collectors.
The Cove director Louie Psihoyos, who also won the Directors Guild of America award for Best Doc, spoke in the showbiz trade The Wrap about the meaning of winning:

It's frightful how important it is [winning the Oscar]. It's the second biggest TV audience in the world, I think. And that'll also validate it in the eyes of the Japanese people. They'll say, "Oh my god, there's that movie again." You know, they say when you're done with a film you're only about halfway there. I feel like we're about a quarter of the way there. And getting nominated would be huge. Last year, about 300,000 people saw the film. By the end of this year, with DVD and television, over 300 million people will see the film. And the Oscars can only help that.