So, who got a bump from Oscar to land on TIME’s 100 Most Influential?
Kathryn Bigelow, who lands at number 3 for artists. This is due to many things, but mainly and most importantly becoming the first woman in 82 years to win a Best Directing Oscar, and the only woman to ever direct a Best Picture winner.
Oliver Stone pays tribute:
Kathryn Bigelow’s career journey has been a stark one. An artist by training, she became a Hollywood darling with the neo-vampiric¬†Near Dark. Her passion for films that challenge conventional sympathies (crooked cops, a heroic Russian submarine commander) led to long spells of being shunned by the studios. But Bigelow, 58, always found her way back. And with¬†The Hurt Locker, her first feature in seven years, she captured the intense, skewered madness of war and the distortion in men’s souls. The result was two richly deserved Oscars.
Yet despite enormous accolades, her film is considered a financial failure ‚Äî like all films about the Iraq war. The question lingers: Why, despite our country’s love affair with violence, do Americans refuse to see these realistic films? With¬†The Hurt Locker, Bigelow unflinchingly stuck her finger in the tragic heart of a national wound ‚Äî our inability to face ourselves.
Stone’s new film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, will be released this fall.
The only other Oscar contenders to make the list was Neill Blomkamp at 16, Sandra Bullock at 22, and Jim Cameron at 25.  Their tributes, after the cut.
Ridley Scott on Neill Blomkamp:
From time to time, there are people in the film industry who appear on the horizon with a unique vision. South African director Neill Blomkamp is one of those rare people. His amazing talent was apparent to me in his early commercials and short films, and it has gone on to exceed even my initial hopes.
Making the move into creating feature films is an impossible feat for almost any director, but Neill, 30, has proved himself the exception. His first feature, the improbable but utterly engaging alien-apartheid allegory¬†District 9, has already brought him more acclaim than most filmmakers will ever achieve: a Golden Globe Award nomination, two BAFTA Award nominations and an Academy Award nod, among others. Neill’s extraordinary talent is a force to be reckoned with, and I know that we all look forward to seeing what lies ahead for this game-changing filmmaker.
Scott is the director of films including Blade Runner and Robin Hood, coming in mid-May
I have always been a big fan of the lady, as has everybody else, but I hadn’t met Sandra Bullock, 45, until we worked together on¬†The Proposal. And the first time we sat down together, it was like we had known each other all our lives. Don’t get me wrong, people can tense up around her without any trouble. But she puts you at ease; there’s no movie star there at all. Well, she happens to be a bit beautiful, I’ll grant, and a bit built, but the human being inside all that gorgeousness is just a delight.
I couldn’t be with her in person the night she won the Best Actress Oscar for¬†The Blind Side, but it was just so wonderful to see her be appreciated. (I’ve seen the movie twice, by the way.) What’s so appealing about her in it is her honesty. She’s been labeled America’s Sweetheart, which sounds soft and sweet. Sandra is both of those things, but she also has a strength of her own. She never lets a scene get away from her. She’s never just there going through her paces. And you can’t take your eyes off of her. America, you wish she were your sweetheart.
And finally, Sigourney Weaver (who else) on Jim Cameron — would have been nice to hear a tribute by another filmmaker, I suppose, as they did with the other two.
Is James Cameron a mutant? That’s what we were all wondering on the set of¬†Avatar, as we flew and fought our way through 18-hour days of filming with Jim behind a 3-D camera that he’d also invented. When we got a rare break, what did the guy do? Grab a cup of coffee with the rest of us and play basketball? No, he slipped into his office to refine the design for the submersible he’d invented to take him down 36,000-plus feet into the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, a place few humans have ever gone (and, I am thinking, would ever want to go).
Then he emerged for another eight-hour stint, savoring every challenge. Did I mention he spearheaded the design for everything that floats, flies or pounces in Avatar as well as all aircraft, weaponry and, oh yes, a new language? He rounded up people at the top of their game to help execute his vision, but it was conceived in his fevered, furry mutant brain. Jim also once designed a Rover for a Mars mission and trained underwater with Russian cosmonauts.
It would be comforting to think of Jim, 55, as superhuman. But the truth is ‚Äî although he has extraordinary abilities, appetite and drive ‚Äî Jim simply does not recognize human limitations in himself or anyone else. People come back to work with him again and again because he makes them dig so deep. During¬†Avatar, Jim was especially encouraging to the actors. It’s the one job he thinks he can’t do. Please don’t anyone ever cast him in a movie. If he finds out that he can act too, we’ll know for sure the guy is a mutant.
Weaver starred in Avatar and Cameron’s Aliens
So, on the one hand, who cares about a list where Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are considered influential (ew, they kinda are) – but on the other hand, it’s a slow news day.
Who did you think was most influential this year? ¬†Knowing my readers they aren’t going to side with TIME on Bigelow (a sad fact) — but those of us who have been around the block and back know just how meaningful Bigelow’s win really was – not just for women but for filmmakers. ¬†And of course, Jim Cameron seemed to have changed the future of a certain kind of filmmaking and that makes him very influential to all people all over the world, not to mention the impact his film had on the global psyche. ¬†2009 will be remembered most for Avatar, no doubt.
I think Lee Daniels and the Precious crew could be called influential from this year’s Oscars. ¬†But who else? ¬†My mind’s a blank.
