“Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.”

Maybe it’s the words of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Cobb, that proves what happened at the Academy Awards this year when it came to acknowledging Christopher Nolan’s cinema masterpiece, Inception.

Ask most people what they went to see this year at the movies and you can bet that Inception was on their list. But it probably wasn’t just on the top of their movie favorites this year, but one of the best and most fascinating films they’ve seen in their entire lives.

Anyone who has seen Inception will tell you that Christopher Nolan’s story of an infiltrating group of individuals who are able to navigate their way through one’s mind through his dreams is nothing if not thought provoking. The concept of questioning what is a dream and what is actually reality has the viewer guessing throughout the full duration of the film, only to leave you on the edge of your seat far beyond when the final credits start rolling.

This type of ingenuity and creative genius can only be the result of an immense amount of thought, creativity and time bestowed upon someone as great a storyteller as Christopher Nolan.
In fact, it took Nolan nearly ten years to put the whole script for the film together, tying in little pieces along the way to make Inception a clearly original piece of work.

So why is it that when nominations for the Academy Awards were announced near the end of January of this year, Christopher Nolan was left out of the running for “Best Director”? Clearly his incredible effort and brilliance throughout the making of the project of Inception was a struggle hardly surpassed by many and should have at least preceded him to be nominated, if not to earn him the title altogether.

It would not be the first time for Nolan, though. Receiving wide critical acclaim for his direction of the blockbuster hit, The Dark Knight, Nolan and the movie were mainly left out of the running for an Oscar back in 2009 besides from picking up two awards: one for sound editing and the other for Heath Ledger’s famous portrayal of The Joker for “Best Supporting Actor.” And although Inception took home four well-deserved Oscars on the night of Feb. 27 at this year’s awards show, the big award categories of the night ultimately overlooked the film beyond nomination.

I have to wonder why this is and hope that a pattern isn’t beginning to stir in Hollywood. These epic blockbusters that will probably be remembered far past some of the actual winners are being overlooked for reasons that can probably stretch beyond the length of my arm. The winners clearly aren’t chosen by how much they made at the box-office, as James Cameron’s own epic creation, Avatar, became the most lucrative film of all time over the dates of its theatrical release, but failed to take home Oscar gold for best picture and best director, awards many believe it deserved.

Nonetheless, many film critics say that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences look for creativity and originality in their choices for winners of the year’s awards. It’s hard to wrap one’s brain around how this could possibly be true when Inception is the essence of creativity and originality, but which story got overlooked as both a screenplay and film in general.

And although it was not a shock when Inception was not awarded the big award of the night, as several professional film critics had projected this outcome, the film certainly should have been awarded the credit that it deserves.

So it makes me wonder if there is at least a slight amount of jealousy in Hollywood swarming about, as a film such as Inception cannot be achieved without a whole amount of thought and creativity to combine it with. And Christopher Nolan has achieved the pinnacle of what most movies have been missing these days: the simple ability to get people to think in a way that they never have before.
Now that is something to be jealous of.