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The 2013 Academy Awards taking place this year on February 24th will recognize what’s considered the best of the best in the movie business. Each year movie fans wait breathlessly for the list of nominations that decide which films are worth watching.

This year, high profile films like Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, and, most controversially, Django Unchained and Zero Dark Thirty were singled out for recognition. While some critics found Quentin Tarantino’s violent spaghetti Western set during the time of slavery problematic, the majority of movie going audiences seemed to embrace the film. And, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, also faced a great deal of criticism for positively connecting the use of torture to the capture of Osama bin Laden.

The diversity, or lack thereof, of those individuals recognized by the Academy is often called into question. This year only two actors of color, no female directors, and only one non-white director were nominated in the top categories of best actor and best director. In fact the total number of people of color who have actually won awards in these categories over the entire history of the Oscars barely breaks into double digits.

But the Academy does live up to its reputation as a liberal institution in at least one respect, the Best Documentary category where The Academy is known to select politically conscious and progressive films. This year was no exception with a list that includes Five Broken Cameras, How to Survive a Plague, and The Invisible War.

GUEST: Jonathan Kim, Film Critic for Uprising, Huffington Post and ReThink Reviews.

Find more of Jonathan’s work here.