John Scalzi's interesting take on Science Fiction and winning the most important Oscars

http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2011/03/oscar-wrapup-plus-sales-and-disclosures/

[image: John Scalzi - Oscar Wrap-up, Plus Sales (of My Book!) and
Disclosures]<http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2011/03/oscar-wrapup-plus-sales-and-disclosures/>
 [image: John Scalzi]<http://comments.blogs.amctv.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=270&id=3013>
John Scalzi<http://comments.blogs.amctv.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=270&id=3013>
John Scalzi is an award-winning science fiction writer.
full bio of John
Scalzi<http://comments.blogs.amctv.com/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=270&id=3013>
   This week's column is going to be a bit of a grab bag of two unrelated
items because, hey, isn't life sometimes a bit of a grab bag? No? It's just
me with the grab-bag-y life? Well, fine. I'm going to do it my way anyway.

*The Oscars and Science Fiction
*The Oscars have come and gone, and in their wake we find almost no
surprises whatsoever. *Inception*, which had been nominated for Best Picture
(but not Director) was not at all surprisingly passed over for the top
accolade, which was instead handed to *The King's Speech*, which also picked
up Director, Actor, and Original Screenplay -- the latter also at the
expense of *Inception*. I thought there might be a chance Nolan would nab
Best Screenplay, as a sort of consolation Oscar, but no: the Academy went
for history instead of science fiction (literally, as *The King's Speech*'s
screenwriter, David Seidler, is the oldest recipient of that award, at age
73). But I expect Nolan will be up for an Oscar again before he's done, and
in the meantime his films make hundreds of millions at the box office. He
will survive.

 That said, *Inception* did win as many Oscars as *The King's Speech*, which
is to say four -- for visual effects (well deserved), sound mixing, sound
editing (both particularly well deserved), and cinematography (especially
well deserved). Cinematographer Wally Pfister had been nominated three times
before, each time for a previous Nolan film. As much as anything else, the
award acknowledges how much of the feel of Nolan's work comes out of
Pfister's camera. Well done, him.

The drawback here is that we see science fiction in the same position it's
generally in: winning Oscars in technical and visual categories but taking a
backseat in the most prominent categories. We're still waiting on the
science-fiction Best Picture winner. The good news here is that three
science-fiction Best Picture nominations in two years suggest that it's no
longer a matter of if but when.

Science fiction also snapped up one other award on Oscar night: Best
Animated Short Film, which was given to *The Lost Thing*, by Hugo
Award-winning artist Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann. I met Shaun very briefly
last year in Australia at the World Science Fiction Convention, and he was a
lovely individual. It's equally lovely to see him win this particular award.

Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |

*“I am not responsible for actions of the imaginary version of me you have
inside your head.”
Attributed to Teresa Nielsen Hayden*

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