For Your Consideration: District 9, Best Picture

Many filmmakers have tackled the idea of humans confronted with aliens on earth before. In Independence Day, we saw Will Smith hunt down a pack of them as they threatened to take over the White House; Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix examined crop circles in Signs; and a young Richard Dreyfuss encounters UFO's in the first film to scare the shit out of me as a child. Each of these were unique and progressive works of filmmaking at the time of their release. However, I don't think I've ever been so affected by an "alien movie" (for lack of a better classification) than by District 9.

From first-time director Neill Blomkamp (there have been a few freshmen directors this year, eh?), District 9 tells the story of aliens forced to live in the slums of South Africa, the governing society who keeps them in captivity, and a man who is thrown in the middle of the conflict. The protagonist, Wikus, is a government worker whose body, after an accident in which he is exposed to alien biotechnology, begins to mutate and transform into an alien. On the run from authorities who would rather just exterminate him, he is forced to leave his life behind and to assimilate into the alien ghettos.

The first act of the film plays out like an hour of CNN reporting of third world devastation, as we see Wikus and other South African officials confronting aliens with documents, legalities, and medical experiments. And just like that, Wikus' place in the story takes an abrupt turn, and the second half of the movie pulls the audience into his struggle to regain his identity.

As you might have guessed, the segregation of aliens from humans in the film serves as a parallel to the segregation of South Africa in the 20th Century. Indeed, there were two films released in 2009 that dealt with South African segregation, and I'll let you guess which one I think is better.

The academy has consistently ignored films of the science fiction or fantasy genres. However, rules were made to be broken, and I'm almost certain that we will see at least two included this year in the Best Picture category.