Thursday, March 3, 2011

Mathematics and Hollywood

My husband and I missed Oscar night this year.  My husband was fast asleep after waking up at 3:30am to watch the legendary 10+ hour World Cup cricket match that resulted in a tie between India and England, while I was busy studying.  In fact, I didn't even know I was missing anything until the next morning when my husband woke up, didn't know if it was day or night and read the award headlines on CNN.com. 

In honor of the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, I was reminded of a few films awarded in the past that had a Mathematics theme:
  • A Beautiful Mind, 2001 Best Picture winner
  • The Matrix, 1999 Best Visual Effects (I was a little disappointed when I found out this movie was not about Linear Algebra)
  • Goodwill Hunting, 1997 Best Original Screenplay
 Other Mathematics themed films that were not as fortunate to receive an award:
  • Suspect X, 2008
  • π, 1998
  • 12 Monkeys, 1995
Who said Mathematics is not glamourous?  Now, off to see The King's Speech!