With Oscar nominations being announced later today, just two days after President Barack Obama’s entry into the White House, it is perhaps natural that the “yes we can” motto can work for Danny Boyle’s film, Slumdog Millionaire. The reason for this is simple — escape. Anyone who watched the new US President’s speech knows that “the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many.” Faced with such crisis, cinema has always been the perfect getaway. Slumdog Millionaire’s optimistic romance in desperate times may get the movie’s name on the golden envelope.

It isn’t the first time that the world needs hope, as Obama reminded the US in his inaugural speech. And it isn’t the first time that the movies have responded to difficult times. The Great Depression, whose grim reflection we face again, was in the same year that also gave birth to the awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — the Oscars.

The nominations’ list for the awards this year may already have a few favourites, with the race for the top spot of best film beginning in mid-2008. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, unleashed the most likeable villain act in decades - the joker, played by Heath Ledger, a role that is now etched in movie history. Then we have David Fincher’s The Curious case of Benjamin Button, a story about a man who is born old and who gets younger as he gets older. Kate Winslet starrers, The Reader and Revolutionary Road may also be listed in the nominations.

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