AwareGuide - Your Guide to Life Changing Media

The Academy has named 15 films advancing to the voting process for Best Documentary Feature. They were chosen from 126 films that qualified for the award, under new rules that required branch members to screen and vote on all the films. This method would seem to favor the most high-profile films, and most of the shortlist films are well-known at this point, but I am happy to see "The Waiting Room" among the nominees.

Its that time of year again when the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Documentaries Screening Committee select a shortlist of 15 feature length documentaries and that are eligible for consideration for nomination for an Oscar for Best Documentary. From this list of fifteen films, five will be selected as finalists by voting members of the Academy's Documentaries Branch for the Best Documentary Oscar.

The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O’Barry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation “Flipper.”

But his close relationship with those dolphins – the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day -- led O’Barry to a radical change of heart. One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again. This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast.

Sustainability and eco-consciousness were not lost amidst the glitz and glamor of the 84th Academy Awards. Thanks to her Green Carpet Challenge (of which EMA is the U.S. partner), Livia Firth recruited several Oscar nominees to wear sustainable attire.

Colin Firth, Oscar winner for Best Actor in the film "The Kings Speech" went eco-friendly on the red carpet at the Academy Awards Sunday night.  Firth and his wife Livia wore environmentally friendly clothing in an effort to raise awareness that you can look red carpet fabulous and be eco-conscious. Livia is the founder of a Fair Trade boutique called Eco Age in London.  She wore a gown made from old dresses and told Britain’s The Sun,

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 83rd Academy Awards®.  One hundred-one pictures had originally qualified in the category.

Congratulations are in order for Conscious Living TV host Bianca Alexander. She recently won an Emmy for her outstanding on-camera work as correspondent on Soul of Green, now airing Sundays on Fox/my50 on The Chicago Urban League's Emmy-award winning Next TV!

"The Cove," which chronicles the grisly business of dolphin hunting in Japan, on Sunday won the Oscar for best feature documentary.

The triumph of "The Cove," among the best reviewed films of the year but relatively unpopular with U.S. audiences due to its disturbing subject matter, came days after its distributor announced the film would open in theaters across Japan for the first time later this year.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will explore what could be in the future for motion pictures in "Where Do We Go from Here?" on Thursday, December 2, at 8 p.m. at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The program will be presented by the Academy's Science and Technology Council and hosted by writer-director-producer Jerry Zucker.