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In the humble opinion of someone who's friends consider him a movie nut, The Passion was the most powerful and moving film I have ever seen. Period. By any standard by which most films are judged, acting, direction, cinematography, art, costume, etc. it is a masterpiece.

OK, that's fine, but it's your personal opinion. As someone who has been paid to write about film...I have no opinion because i didn't see it! :D (I've heard the score, which is laughably derivative of Gabriel's Last Temptation and also of Gladiator.)

"Respectfully, your comparisons with other high grossing films that the AAMPAS failed to recognize just doesn't fly."

Why not? Are you saying the Oscars always go to movies you personally feel are the best in cinematography, etc? I don't quite understand what you're saying--all the best movies are always nominated? By whose standards? You're acting as if there is one single standard for these things. I'm saying, lots of movies that are box office hits don't get nominated. And I happen to be right about that. I'll bow to you on the quality of the movie, but I could make a list as long as my arm of movies I thought were better than anything nominated, but weren't.

I just don't see the pertinence of one's personal opinion on this matter, because it's THEIR opinion that matters, and if I'm not mistake The Passion got nominated for music and photography.

So I guess I just don't understand why my comparisons with other high grossing films don't fly. Why don't they?

You haven't seen the Passion and you are soomeone who's "paid to write about film". Well, which do you prefer, Kodak or Fuji? The most controversial piece of cinema in the last twenty years, and you a writer about film, and you didn't see it, and you have the chutzpah to jump ar someone who has seen it and has expressed an opinion that was mirrored in the tear stained faces of a few hundred million people leaving theaters last year.

If your total universe of film experience is limited to a half dozen "blockbusters" a year for how ever many years you've been around, then you might not realize how large the gap is between what Mel Gibson acomplished and 99.9 percent of films made since the medium was invented.

Ignoring The Passion for major categories would have been like ignoring Gone With the Wind because it glorified the Confederacy or Ben Hur because it glorified Christ. Frankly, if either of those films were made now in the current Hollywood climate of anti-Christianity and political correctness, they'd probably be overlooked too.

PS: The awarding of nominations and prizes is based on nothing but opinion and so I expressed mine. I tried being polite with you but I guess that doesn't work with some people.