影视娱乐：Fantasy Battles Reality for Best Picture Oscar (视频)

影视娱乐：Fantasy Battles Reality for Best Picture Oscar(视频) VOA (ZT)

The countdown to the 82nd Academy Awards, Hollywood's glitziest event, has begun.

This year, 10 films, instead of the usual five, are competing for Best Picture. Two of them -- "The Hurt Locker" and "Avatar" -- appear to be favorites and are in fierce competition with nine Oscar nominations each.

The two movies couldn't be more different. "The Hurt Locker" is a low-budget war drama while "Avatar" is an epic 3D fantasy with special effects and box office revenues of "Titanic" proportions.

Another world

In "Avatar," director James Cameron creates a visual extravaganza that immerses the viewer in the lush, tropical world of planet Pandora. The filmmaker invented a habitat with thousands of imagined animal and plant species. He also created the Na'vi, an alien tribe of 10-foot-tall blue people who speak a language of their own.

"We were creating an entire world from scratch," says Cameron. "So we got a number of top-class artists, I mean the top people. I am an artist so I went to find people that impressed me."



But what's most novel is the film's 3D cinematography. Cameron built a 3D camera that shoots from two different perspectives at the same time, mimicking the way human beings view the world. The movie screen gives the illusion that one is looking from a window into a three-dimensional universe.

"Avatar" is the story of Jake Sully, a paraplegic former marine sent to Pandora to help humans infiltrate and destroy the Na'vis in order to exploit the planet's mineral resources. Jake fuses his consciousness with his avatar, a 10-foot-tall Na'vi engineered by human geneticists.

However, the more Jake inhabits his avatar, the more he empathizes with the natives. He ultimately sides with the Na'vi in a deadly battle against the humans. The film cost $300 million to make and has grossed almost $1 billion.

Cameron, who won Best Picture for "Titanic", is facing tough competition from his ex-wife, director Kathryn Bigelow and her gripping Iraq war drama, "The Hurt Locker."

Realities of war

While Bigelow's $11 million production cannot match Cameron's alternate universe, the film does offer riveting cinematography, an intelligent script and Oscar-worthy performances.

The movie focuses on a bomb disposal unit in Baghdad. Danger surrounds them and no one is more exposed than the three soldiers working to disable homemade bombs all across town.

The movie is nerve-racking. Bigelow drives home the war's bottom line: the fight for survival. Bigelow's film does not glorify war. She shows the soldiers' bravery but at the same time portrays their anguish and addiction to the rush of battle. Four cameras roll at the same time, jerking from one soldier to the next in documentary style.

Bigelow has already been named Best Director by the Directors' Guild. She, like Cameron, has received nine Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director.

If she wins either, she'll be the first woman director so honored.

"I think that what's amazing is to be recognized for a film that puts a magnifying lens on a very difficult, if not insane, situation in Iraq," says Bigelow.

And what does James Cameron say about his rival?

"I wish her the absolute best. If she wins, I'll be cheering," he says.