Precious Cast seats

Did the Precious Cast seats indicate they got the snub in the seating charts at the Oscars?  The cast of the sleeper film of the season — it was originally scheduled to go directly to DVD — has been seated on the far right side of the theater.  Could it be that a city and an industry so obsessed with image put the heavier, predominantly African-American cast in the house’s bad seats? Strange seating, for a picture which received six nominations at the ceremony this year, including best director, best actress, best supporting actress, best adapted screenplay and best editing. The lights seemed to be dimmed over the cast.

Precious Cast seats

The Oscars are under way, so here’s a quick preview of the best film Nominees.  The Category has been expanded this year, and 10 films will compete for the little golden man.  In previous years, the category has been half that size.

1. Avatar.  James Cameron’s blockbuster hit which has already made more than $2 billion worldwide.  If you haven’t seen this futuristic, 3D sci-fi fantasy, you must be the only one.

2. The Blind Side, staring Sandra Bullock, traces one family’s adoption of a black football player and America’s continued unease with race.

3. District 9, an old fashioned alien invasion thriller with a modern twist.

4. An Education, about the seduction of a 16 year old English Schoolgirl by a wealthy and sophisticated older man.

5. Inglorious Basterds, perhaps Quentin Tarrentino’s bloodiest film yet, stars Brad Pitt as a take-no-prisoners Nazi hunter.  It is perhaps charting a new genre of “blood-porn” films.

6. The Hurt Locker, a timely film about an elite bomb squad unit of the US army in Iraq who is charged with detonating IEDs.

7. Precious, the story of an obese, African-American woman from the inner-city.  A rare  look into the life of America’s poor.

8. A Serious Man, the Coen brother’s latest, is a look into modern America and the troubles that befall physics professor Larry Gopnik.

9. Up, pixar’s latest film, is the only animated film in the Best Picture category this year.

10. Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, traces the life of a lonely man who spends more time in Hotels and Planes than in his home town.  A portrait of the tragic mobile spirit of Americans.

The 82nd annual Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, will air on ABC this sunday at 8pm.  Watch Live Online or tune it in to find out who from the Oscar Preview takes the little golden man.  Maybe next year the Precious Cast Seats will be better if they clean house.