The Oscar storyline everywhere was the battle between the exs, Kathryn Bigelow versus James Cameron. Their respective films, The Hurt Locker and Avatar represented the extreme poles of box office accomplishment. But that narrative had little to do with the actual voting. I talked with several members of the Academy, and I feel they were swayed more by Cameron's current paramour, the bitch goddess success. The voting for Best Picture was different this year.  Unlike other categories, voters ranked the nominations from one to ten. Many voters thought that Cameron already triumphed with the highest grossing film of all time so they ranked him ninth or even tenth.  The Hurt Locker had almost universal respect and I doubt few ranked it lower than third. It is conceivable that Avatar had more first place votes than Hurt Locker, but Cameron's detractors, including many nervous actors, ultimately determined the victory.

The Hurt Locker is the most immersive experience of men at war. Without 3-D technology, Bigelow was able thrust the audience into the grueling battlefield. And like a savvy politician, she captured all of her viewers despite political persuasion. When Republican strategist Nicolle Wallace, who oversaw communication for President George W. Bush, can praise the film for its macho realism, you have united conservatives and liberals. Bigelow directed a film that can be read in many contradictory ways by the media elite.

Her ex-husband was attacked by the right and left, but Avatar conquered the mainstream audience. Conservative columnist David Brooks dismissed the film as a condescending and offensive White Messiah fantasy. Many liberals have assailed its manufactured quality, a Pocahontas with Blue People. Still Cameron ignited a whole new technology for the general public, infusing the third dimension with a mélange of messages, from anti-militarism to pro-environmentalism.

The messages from the documentary community are rarely ambiguous. The documentary has proven to be the one form of journalism that works, illuminating the difficult issues that plague our times. Except last night. The winners of both the short and feature film categories let infighting and ego mar the powerful content of their work. The tensions between the director Roger Ross Williams and producer Elinor Burkett erupted during the acceptance speech, overshadowing the heroic struggles of the short doc's subject, singer Prudence Mabhena of Zimbabwe. I salute the creative comment of the first blogger who stated the producer "Kanyed" her own documentary, a first for the Academy Awards. The Cove's protagonist, Ric O'Barry courageously took on the Japanese fishing industry, but sunk his team's acceptance speech when he began to unfurl a banner. The telecast's director immediately cut away from the stage, and everyone lost sight of the ultimate message, the horrific slaughter of dolphins. At least this year there are retakes with the Thank You Cam, and there the winners of Music by Prudence accepted with some dignity:

The whole Academy evening was suffused with mixed messages. The Academy tried to appeal to many different audiences from the eighties devotees of John Hughes, who was never nominated, to fans of the horror genre, which is usually dissed by voters. The Paley Center recently screened the very first televised Oscar evening, from 1953 where there was an optimism about the future of the movies. There were even more 3-D jokes by host Bob Hope than last night. But our movie future remained in the imagination of James Cameron; the Academy, balancing the demands of young and old viewers, has its hands full with the present.