The film award season will culminate on Sunday at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards and while the evening is most often associated with golden statues, there are some green things to make note of.
Piggy-backing on Huffington Post’s coverage, we give you this year’s greenest nominees:
Best Actress nominee Natalie Portman is a vegan who participated in a documentary about endangered gorillas and designed a line of vegan shoes. The newly engaged actress is also sporting a sustainable engagement ring.
Best Actor nominee Colin Firth is a purveyor of fair-trade shops and cafes in his native Britain. Firth’s wife, Livia, is also dedicated to sustainable living and often graces the red carpet in sustainable gowns.
Just like the kids,Best Supporting Actor nominee Mark Ruffalo hopes to keep our land and waterways alright by keeping them free of hazardous chemicals from natural gas drilling (fracking). Rufallo lobbies tirelessly to put an end to fracking.
Best Director nominee Daren Aronofsky has taken steps to make his sets plastic bottle free. His Black Swan set received the EMA Green Seal (as did 127 Hours and The Social Network.)
Best Actress nominee Annette Benning joined the Los Angeles based environmental nonprofit TreePeople several years ago and helped to open the TreePeople Center for Community Forestry. The Center is dedicated to teaching visitors about the natural cycle of forests.
Best Director nominees Joel and Ethan Coen directed a commercial mocking the notion of clean coal. Their True Grit set (nominated for Best Picture) was also plastic bottle free.
Though not nominated this year for his acting, Leonardo DiCaprio is part of the Best Picture nominee Inception. DiCaprio is board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Global Green, who advocates for causes like solar power and protection of endangered species.
Nominated this year for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin has spoken out (loudly) against animal torture. Sorkin penned a letter to the Huffington Post comparing Sarah Palin’s methods of hunting to the acts that earned Michael Vick jail time.
Following in his environmental activist father’s footsteps, Best Supporting Actor nominee Christian Bale is staunch supporter of Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund.
Four of the nominated films for Best Directory take on environmental issues. Waste Land takes the audience inside the world’s largest garbage dump in Rio de Janeiro; Gasland investigates the impact of natural gas drilling on land and water; Sun Come Up shares the story of an island community dealing with rising sea levels; The Warriors of Qiugang follows Chinese villagers taking on the chemical company that polluted their land.
