1) Why Vote on Tuesday? Al Franken and Sen. Coleman Respond!

For the Cinema YouTube Video of the Day, Click here>>

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It may not have won Best Picture (should have!) but There Will Be Blood packed a cinematic punch with social messages galore. Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic tale of a California oil man and his experience in a religious small town doesn’t take sides and watching Danial Day-Lewis and Paul Dano discuss the issues that we are all indirectly dealing with everyday is pretty powerful. But with a story about oil and evangelism, There Will Be Blood has no doubt been fostering lots of discussion.

And action almost always begins with discussion.

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When Spain’s Javier Bardem won the Academy Award for Best Supporting actor for his role in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men, he responded by saying

Mamá, esto es para ti. Esto es para tus abuelos, para tus padres, Rafael y Matilde. Esto es para los cómicos de España que han traído la dignidad y el orgullo a nuestro oficio. Esto es para España. Y esto es para todos vosotros

which means

Mom, this is for you. This is for your grandparents, for your parents, Rafael and Matilde. This is for the Comics of Spain who brought so much pride and dignity to our profession. This is for Spain. This is for all of you.

OK. But what does that mean?

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Part of the fun of watching the Oscars every year is listening to the speeches and hoping for words of wisdom, inspiration and of course words that make us laugh from some of most talented folks in the industry.

Below are my Top 5 Oscar Speeches from last night that made the 3+ hour show worth it.

1. Daniel Day-Lewis winning Best Actor for There Will Be Blood : It should be said that I have long been a fan of Daniel Day-Lewis, but that aside, his acceptable speech last night had all the elements - he started off with a simple joke, inspired us with his carefully crafted tribute to the great Paul Thomas Anderson, and then touched our hearts with the thanks he gave his co-stars and his family - all the while keeping calm and not rambling.

And that’s the closest I’ll ever come to getting a knighthood, so thank you.

My deepest thanks to the members of the Academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town. I’m looking at this gorgeous thing you’ve given me and I’m thinking back to the first devilish whisper of an idea that came to him and everything since and it seems to me that this sprang like a golden sapling out of the mad, beautiful head of Paul Thomas Anderson.

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My pick for Best Picture this year is overwhelmingly There Will Be Blood - everything about it is amazing, the performances, the direction, the music, the cinematography and even the social commentary on religion and greed.

Even though it’s not my preferred Oscar winner, Atonement has a lot to offer as a piece about class and the dangers of prejudice:

With lush photography and a beautiful cast, Joe Wright’s Oscar nominated Atonement is being advertised as an epic romance, and while romance does weave itself in and out of the plot, it doesn’t really get to the heart of the film.

From the opening shot, a long line of animal figurines representing all of the jungle and the natural order of things, it’s clear that instead of love, this is a movie about class. For in England, the natural order of things, no matter how unnatural it may seem, is their rigid class system.

For more on Atonement, check out the full length article over at OpenLeft.com

And to help bridge cultural divides here in the US.

The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Several topics really stood out this week, including the Oscars as social advocacy inspiration, civil rights and Black History Month, and lots of hot news on entertainment going Green. Check out our most popular posts of the week on these subjects, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites.

Katie:

Happy Belated “Freedom to Marry” Week!

Rosa and Raymond Parks: Valiant Valentine #5

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Nicole:

Top 10 Oscar Picks to Inspire Social Action

Cornel West: Black Thoughts On Black History Month

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Giulia:

H&M’s “Fashion Against AIDS”

Ed Begley Jr. Goes Green

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Gina:

Top 10 Best Picture Winners That Inspire

Remixing “Chicago 10″

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Kerry:

How To Set the World On Fire Without Burning Out

Eco-Brokers Cater to Green Homebuyers

The 80th Annual Academy Awards are almost upon us, and I’m sure you all have your favorite films that you’re routing for. We here at TakePart have our fave films too, of course based on their relevance to social action and advocacy. Check out our picks for these top 10 Oscar categories, and how these films have left the world a bit of a better place than before they arrived on the big (or little) screen!

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Actor in a Leading Role: Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah

Tommy Lee Jones gives an incredible performance as a war veteran searching for his son, a soldier who recently returned from Iraq, but has now mysteriously disappeared. The shadow of the Iraq war is cast across several films that have been nominated this year, but Jones’ moving performance highlights the emotional and spiritual battles soldiers and their families must face long after they’ve come home from the combat zone.

and find out what you can do to help Veterans for Peace seek justice for veterans and victims of war, and to abolish war as an instrument of national policy.

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Before people start discussing whether or not the Oscar’s will even happen - I think we should all sit back and enjoy the nominations - they aren’t half bad:Best Picture : Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country For Old Men and There Will be BloodBest Director : Julian Schnabel, Jason Reitman, Tony Gilroy, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen and Paul Thomas AndersonBest Actor : George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Johnny Depp, Tommy Lee Jones and Viggo MortensenBest Actress :

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The WGA strike wages on, and the Golden Globes are its latest victim. With SAG joining in solidarity with the writers, the show would be starless and noticeably dimmer. Instead it seems we will get a newscast of sorts of the results - maybe they’ll still show some montages? I really love the montages…I guess I’ll just have to wait for the Oscars and hope all is fixed by then so I can see Daniel Day-Lewis win for his amazing performance in There Will Be Blood. In other WGA news, another victim to the strike are the folks who work on the TV shows that aren’t being shot right now. Warner just announced that it intends to layoff 1,000 workers although they hope that eventually they’ll be able to hire them back.If you want to get involved and support the writers in a fun and creative way click to read more below the fold:

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Why do people make top 10 lists at the end of year?When it comes to cinema, I think there are two reasons : 1) the people that spend all year watching films enjoy a moment at the end when they can dialogue with other knowledgeable, passionate folks about what they liked and why 2) as Jonathan Rosenbaum puts it “the industry’s desire to resell goods that have already been sold to us again and again.”The reason I’m doing it? A little of the first reason and a little of the second I suppose. In regards to the second, it frustrates me that most movies on my list were never released in the majority of the country, my parents in Ohio for example, didn’t have the chance to see 4-6 of the movies that I loved the most this year (if they were released they probably played once without any publicity).We live in a society that pre-packages our entertainment and has ultimately decided that as a country we can only handle the easiest, the most cliched of movies. In that same way, they pre-package most foreign countries only providing people with fear - when people think of Iran, they think of the words that the Bush administration has fed us, but nobody knows who Kiarostami is (do you?).And people for the most part seem OK with this, OK with choices that suggest they aren’t smart enough to work a little bit while they are entertained. With this, I give you a list of films that I think are worth seeing, that for the most part weren’t at suburban multiplexes and while there a lot of US films on the list, half are from across the globe. The amazing thing about today, is that despite a lack of control on what gets shown in the theater, with Netflix and online retailing, anyone, anywhere has access to tons of DVDs.So take this for what you will - and maybe try something you’ve never heard of. I’ve included a trailer for each and a link to what I think is a representative review. Enjoy!

1. There Will Be Blood (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson) USA

David Denby’s review in The New Yorker

2. Killer of Sheep (directed by Charles Burnett) USA

Jonathan Rosenbaum’s review in the Chicago Reader

3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (directed by Andrew Dominik) USA

Andrew Sarris’ review in the New York Observer

4. Private Fears in Public Places (directed by Alain Resnais) France

Jonathan Rosenbaum’s review in the Chicago Reader

5. After the Wedding (directed by Suzanne Bier) Denmark

Kenneth Turan’s review in the Los Angeles Times

6. Syndromes and a Century (directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul) Thailand

A.O. Scott’s review in The New York Times

7. I’m Not There (directed by Todd Haynes) USA

J. Hoberman’s review in the Village Voice

8. Regular Lovers (directed by Philippe Garrel) France

Manohla Dargis’ review in The New York Times

9. Bamako (directed by Abderrahmane Sissako) MaliNathan Lee’s review in the Village Voice

10. Sweeney Todd (directed by Tim Burton) USA

A.O. Scott’s review in The New York Times