And the Oscar didn't go to...

So there were no major surprises at the Oscars, except the acceptance speeches weren't as dull as initially feared, and that Alan Arkin broke Eddy Murphy's heart in the best supporting actor department. That The Departed beat Babel meant the maestro is deservedly recognised while the hotshot remains a hotshot. Nothing's fair in life - especially at the Academy Awards.

Quickly the winners were toasted and the rest of the nominees forgotten. As the marquee titles - The Departed, The Queen, Babel, Dreamgirls, The Lives of Others - have enjoyed a theatrical run in Bangkok, I'd like to bring your attention to a couple of other brilliant films whose names were announced, briefly as the nominees, though their future in Thai multiplexes seems murky, if not totally pitch-black.

Alfonso Cuaron's scintillating sci-fi romp Children of Men was up for best cinematography and film editing, losing the first to Pan's Labyrinth and the second to The Departed. A futuristic, apocalypse-now rumble that's as intelligent as it is exhilarating, Children of Men will not receive a theatrical release in Thailand, according to distributor UIP. This is a major upset, because nothing could match the experience of seeing some of the film's wonder-shots and its mud-stained dystopian vision on the big screen. That the film is entertaining, and could easily be marketed as an action flick, adds to the confusion why it won't open here.

My colleague Plalai Faifa wrote at length about Children of Men early last month in his DVD column. So briefly restated, the film is set in 2027, in the future world where the future never looks bleaker since humans have lost the ability to procreate; no females have become pregnant during the last 18 years. Clive Owen plays a British bureaucrat who gets tangled up in a chaotic cross-country mission to bring a black girl who's miraculously pregnant to a group of mysterious scientists aboard an invisible ship. All the while he's being hunted by a band of revolutionaries who want to use the newborn as a bargaining tool, and he takes refuge with a joint-puffing neo-hippie, played with zing by Michael Caine.

It's easy to see why Children of Men was nominated for best cinematography. The film contains a couple of uninterrupted shots that seem nearly impossible to pull off, chiefly the chase sequence in which the camera, somehow hovering inside a moving car like a persistent ghost, captures the four-minute chaos that erupts in and around the vehicle without a blink - we almost didn't either.

Another worthy contender that didn't bring home any statuette is the satirical suburban drama Little Children. Kate Winslet, up for best actress, plays a young mother who finds herself in a heated affair with another woman's husband, and things get more complicated when a convicted paedophile, released from jail, takes up residence in their neighbourhood and sends responsible parents into a state of paranoia. Jackie Earle Haley, who played the paedophile, was nominated for best supporting actor.

Initially, Little Children was scheduled to open on February 22, a week before the Oscars. But the distributor, Mongkol Major, was forced to delay the release when the censors objected to the steamy sex scenes between Winslet and Patrick Wilson (I suspect it's the scene where they do it in the laundry room). There was uncertainty, but it's now confirmed that the film will be in theatres on March 29.

There is no word whether The Last King of Scotland, starring Oscar-winner Forrest Whitaker, will get a local release

maestro someone who is very good at something marquee being the main performer or sports person in a show, film, sports event, etc. or being the performer whose name will attract most people to the show or film murky describes a situation that is complicated and unpleasant, and about which many facts are unclear pitch-black extremely dark, or without any chances of happening scintillating interesting, exciting and clever apocalypse now the feeling that the end of the world is near exhilarating making you feel very excited and happy mud-stained describes colours that are dark and not bright dystopian the opposite of utopia (utopia is the idea of a perfect society in which everyone works well with each other and is happy) restated said something again or in a different way bleaker a situation where there is less hope for the future than before

procreate to produce children tangled up got mixed up in a difficult situation, or a state of confusion miraculously very effective, surprising or difficult to believe bargaining tool a thing used to come to an agreement between two people or groups in which each promises to do something in exchange for something else takes refuge gets protection or shelter from danger, trouble or unhappiness by a person or at a place joint-puffing smoking cigarettes that contain cannabis, for example marijuana neo-hippie a hippie (a person, typically young, especially in the late 1960s and early 1970s, who believed in world peace, was opposed to many of the accepted ideas about how to live, had long hair, and often lived in communal groups and used drugs) that is new or recent, or in a modern form zing a quality that makes something interesting or exciting; enthusiasm or energy uninterrupted (especially of a period of time) continuous pull off to succeed in something hovering staying in one place in the air; if a bird, usually by moving the wings quickly

persistent lasting for a long time or difficult to get rid of erupts explodes or bursts out suddenly worthy deserving respect, admiration or support contender someone who competes with other people to try to win something convicted shown to have been guilty of a crime paedophile a person, especially a man, who is sexually interested in children delay make something happen at a later time than originally planned or expected censors people whose job is to read books, watch films, etc., in order to remove anything that might upset them steamy sexually exciting or including a lot of sexual activity uncertainty not knowing what to do or believe, or not able to decide about something