Kathryn Bigelow pierces glass ceiling at Oscars

This Oscar has been about excess, exes and sexes. Excess because this is the first time after 1943 that the Academy went for 10 nominations for the best picture award. Exes because this is the first time that two directors (James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow) who have lived together were competing for the best director and the best picture awards. Sexes because this might be the only time an actor (Sandra Bullock) has won the best actress award for her role in an absolutely men’s game: the American football.

When all of us woke up this morning we thought that our gender will change. It didn’t. It can’t. Because we have proved once again that we are a country of old men and not one for women (age not barred). Which is the one and only reason that this Oscar means so much for us. It is not about cinema. It is much more than it. It is about a vote. It is about a choice. And unlike any one of us the choice is deferred.

Even when the Academy of Motion Pictures gave Hollywood cinema a new avatar we stayed tight lipped. On a day belonging to women (they didn’t ask for it), we did not have the courage to make an offer. In fact, soon after the Oscars we saw our parliamentarians tearing off a bill meant for our weaker section. Our media is replete with reports about offences made against women, girls and even minors. But they aren’t big screen scripts. That makes this Oscar important for our cultural conscience.

So when the Hurt Locker won a record number of awards we may think it is entertainment crossing the last frontier but it actually is what we have always liked to know as ‘burning the bra’. Even as Avatar didn’t win any Oscars the question remains Up in the Air: When can women look for a reincarnation? Hurt and Locked, excess, exes and sexes notwithstanding. The morning after: a fact remains that Bigelow broke the glass ceiling.