Marine life fared well on Sunday night at the 82nd Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. The Cove, a movie which we called the scariest and most important dolphin movie you'll ever see, won the Oscar for Best Documentary. The Japan hunting town villainously depicted in the film is already bitter about the Oscar win.

 

In related news, the film's distributor recently announced that The Cove will screen in Japanese theaters soon.

 

"When the film is seen in Japan, it will shut 'the cove' down permanently," said Ric O'Barry, a former dolphin trainer from the legendary TV show Flipper who assisted with the making of the film. Indeed, during last night's Oscar telecast, O'Barry — now a staunch advocate for dolphin rights — was seen on stage holding a sign for people to text message their support. Producers of the Oscars, perhaps afraid to be seen as taking a political side in an otherwise tame evening, immediately went to a different shot and cut off the microphone. As a result, the film's director, Louis Psihoyos, who we've interviewed here on MNN several times, was not allowed to give his acknowledgements.

 

Another nature-themed movie didn't fare as well. Although it won a few Oscars in technical categories, James Cameron's Avatar did not win any of the big awards including Best Director and Best Movie -- which both ended up going to Cameron's ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, for her Iraq drama, The Hurt Locker.  

 

Overall, it was not a great weekend for Avatar. It was trounced at the box office this weekend by another 3-D film, Tim Burton's surreal adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Alice broke opening weekend records, raking in a whopping $210 million in three days. Avatar's Cameron does have something to look forward to, though — rumor has it he's already hard at work on an Avatar sequel.

 

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Here's our recent video interview with Louis Psihoyos: